MANCHESTER has one of the lowest levels of female directors of any UK city, according to a new report.

They make up only 19 per cent of company bosses in the city, says a survey by information services firm Experian.

It found just 13,000 out of 68,700 directors are women, and only Aberdeen with 18 per cent has a lower proportion.

Across the north west as a whole, 84,000 directors, or 21.6 per cent of the total, are female compared with a national average of 28 per cent.

Experian analysed 2.83 million directors nationwide for its report.

Nationally, the number of female bosses has broken through the one million mark for the first time.

Experian's Female Directors Report for 2007 says women are making steady progress and are having the most impact in property management and the caring professions of education, health and social work, with the least in the utilities sector. It says cracks are visible in the glass ceilings of larger organisations, which have seen a 25 per cent rise in women reaching the boardroom since 2005.

Laura Wolfe, north west regional director of the Institute of Directors, said she was astonished at the Manchester figures. "For a city that is so diverse, so entrepreneurial and so full of vibrancy, I am very surprised at the findings," she said. Tweet