The chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) Fiona Reynolds has called for super funds to appoint more female directors and increase gender diversity.
In her speech at the AIST Fund Governance Conference in Melbourne, Reynolds encouraged all funds to move to gender diversity of at least 40 per cent within the next five years, with the research showing the current levels of women directors of not-for-profit funds sitting at 21 per cent.
"This research shows that the current crop of female trustee directors is extremely well-qualified, experienced and skilled," Reynolds said. "There simply is no excuse for not having more females represented on super fund boards."
Having more women on the boards would lead to addressing the gender gap in retirement savings, Reynolds added.
AIST has teamed up with the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) in its call to increase gender diversity on super fund boards.
EOWA director Helen Conway said it had been 25 years since the introduction of affirmative action legislation to deal with barriers to women's workforce participation, and endorsed Reynolds' call.
"There are still significant issues 25 years on – there remains an unacceptably low level of women in leadership positions on boards and management," Conway said.
"Organisations need to address their pipelines of female talent, and set numerical targets at the top levels to bring about change."
