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There is slow progress on achieving gender parity on the boards of Australia’s biggest companies, as women continue to be significantly outnumbered by men across executive management positions.
The Australian Institute of Company Directors’ (AICD) latest Gender Diversity report revealed women account for 36 per cent of board positions on the ASX 200 and 35.5 per cent across the ASX 300 as of February 2023.
Out of the top 200 listed entities on the ASX, findings showed only nine boards have over 50 per cent female representation, while the majority of the other 168 boards are still represented by men.
When considering only non-executive directors (NEDs), women do break through the 40 per cent mark, representing 40.2 per cent of NEDs on the ASX 300.
AICD managing director and chief executive Mark Rigotti said achieving 40 per cent female representation at non-executive level was a “significant achievement” that highlighted what can be done with “commitment and intent”.
“It is important for us to recognise that the gains of the past decade have come about because of an active focus and effort to achieve parity. We can use this experience to point the way forward,” he stated.
AICD’s December 2022 report found that women accounted for almost 45 per cent of new director appointments to ASX 200 boards during the year. However, it also showed that just 10.5 per cent of ASX 200 companies and 11 per cent of ASX 300 companies are chaired by women.
But he acknowledged that there is still considerable progress to be made to address the gender imbalance at the executive director level.
The report found that 88.9 per cent of ASX 300 executive directors or those who also hold the position of CEO or other executive management post, are men.
“The challenge is now for boards to refocus their attention so we see similar progress can flow through to executive director appointments,” Mr Rigotti said.
Nicola Wakefield Evans, chair of the 30% Club Australia, says the lack of women in the c-suite is an issue for boards and underlined that “more [is] needed to be done” to tackle the underrepresentation of women at senior executive level.
“Boards are responsible for appointing CEOs and ensuring that a company’s policies and procedures support equal opportunities for women to progress up the leadership pipeline,” she said.
“We must continue to work on coordinated and long-term strategies that provide opportunities for women to thrive at all levels of leadership.”
“Boards are responsible for appointing CEOs and ensuring that a company’s policies and procedures support equal opportunities for women to progress up the leadership pipeline,” Ms Evans said.
In September 2022, the Chief Executive Women (CEW) census showed that gender equality for most senior leadership roles in corporate Australia is still a staggering 100 years away if the status quo at the executive level does not change.
The report called for a range of actions from both investors and government, including adopting a “gender lens” for both policy development and investment processes.
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