• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
MPWMost Powerful Women

Men Named ‘David’ Outnumbered All of Britain’s Top Women CEOs Last Year

Claire Zillman
By
Claire Zillman
Claire Zillman
Editor, Leadership
Down Arrow Button Icon
Claire Zillman
By
Claire Zillman
Claire Zillman
Editor, Leadership
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 4, 2017, 7:13 AM ET
Key Airline Executives Attend The Global Aviation Festival
Bloomberg via Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in Fortune‘s World’s Most Powerful Women newsletter. Subscribe here.

A report on FTSE 100 CEOs published Thursday underscores the blatant gender imbalance in the number of female versus male CEOs at U.K.’s largest public companies. The report, based on fiscal year 2016, makes a point of mentioning that there were actually more men named David—eight—and men named Steve or Stephen—seven—among the top CEOs than there were female chief executives—six.

It also revealed a pay gap between what those women earned on average, compared to their male counterparts.

According to the report by High Pay Centre and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, there were six female chief executives in the index—Whitbread’s Alison Brittain, Kingfisher’s Veronique Laury, Imperial Brand’s Alison Cooper, Severn Trent’s Liv Garfield, Royal Mail’s Moya Greene, and EasyJet’s Carolyn McCall— in fiscal year 2016, but they earned just 4% of the total pay. (Emma Walmsley became CEO of GlaxoSmithKline after the timeframe of the report.) The 94 male CEOs earned an average salary of £4.7 million last year while women CEOs were paid £2.6 million on average. Of the women, Cooper took home the largest pay check worth £5.5 million.

All told, men on the list—on average—earned 77% more than their female counterparts.

The report’s finding comes amid other high-profile equal pay battles at the Financial Times and the BBC, and it clearly illustrates—says report co-author Peter Cheese—a pay disparity at the top.

“Quite rightly this issue of fairness is increasingly being called out and this needs to be addressed at all levels of businesses,” Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, told the Guardian.

About the Author
Claire Zillman
By Claire ZillmanEditor, Leadership
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Claire Zillman is a senior editor at Fortune, overseeing leadership stories. 

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in MPW

Workplace CultureSports
Exclusive: Billionaire Michele Kang launches $25 million U.S. Soccer institute that promises to transform the future of women’s sports
By Emma HinchliffeDecember 2, 2025
10 days ago
C-SuiteLeadership Next
Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman says she has the best job ever: ‘My job is to help make people feel really good about themselves’
By Fortune EditorsNovember 5, 2025
1 month ago
ConferencesMPW Summit
Executives at DoorDash, Airbnb, Sephora and ServiceNow agree: leaders need to be agile—and be a ‘swan’ on the pond
By Preston ForeOctober 21, 2025
2 months ago
Jessica Wu, co-founder and CEO of Sola, at Fortune MPW 2025
MPW
Experts say the high failure rate in AI adoption isn’t a bug, but a feature: ‘Has anybody ever started to ride a bike on the first try?’
By Dave SmithOctober 21, 2025
2 months ago
Jamie Dimon with his hand up at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit
SuccessProductivity
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says if you check your email in meetings, he’ll tell you to close it: ’it’s disrespectful’
By Preston ForeOctober 17, 2025
2 months ago
Pam Catlett
ConferencesMPW Summit
This exec says resisting FOMO is a major challenge in the AI age: ‘Stay focused on the human being’
By Preston ForeOctober 16, 2025
2 months ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
Tariffs are taxes and they were used to finance the federal government until the 1913 income tax. A top economist breaks it down
By Kent JonesDecember 12, 2025
12 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
At 18, doctors gave him three hours to live. He played video games from his hospital bed—and now, he’s built a $10 million-a-year video game studio
By Preston ForeDecember 10, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Palantir cofounder calls elite college undergrads a ‘loser generation’ as data reveals rise in students seeking support for disabilities, like ADHD
By Preston ForeDecember 11, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Arts & Entertainment
'We're not just going to want to be fed AI slop for 16 hours a day': Analyst sees Disney/OpenAI deal as a dividing line in entertainment history
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 11, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Uncategorized
Transforming customer support through intelligent AI operations
By Lauren ChomiukNovember 26, 2025
16 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
‘We have not seen this rosy picture’: ADP’s chief economist warns the real economy is pretty different from Wall Street’s bullish outlook
By Eleanor PringleDecember 11, 2025
1 day ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.