Gender diversity yet to translate at chair level on ASX boards

While significant progress has been made on ASX boards and committees, gender balance hasn’t reached the chair level yet, a new diversity report found.

According to the latest Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Gender Diversity Report, some 39% of board committees were chaired by women.

X

Continue to Website

But this fell when looking at overall board chairs with 10.5% of ASX 200 companies chaired by women and 11% of ASX 300 companies. 

There were also four ASX 200 boards with no women: De Grey Mining Limited, Core Lithium Limited, Sayonara Mining Limited, and Capricorn Metals Limited.  

Mark Rigotti, CEO and managing director at AICD, stated that while boards were placing priority on gender balance, there was work to be done at a chair level. 

“The fact that female directors comprise 45% of new directors to the ASX 200 in 2022 demonstrates that boards continue to place focus and priority on gender balance. This is also evidenced by the high percentage of women chairing board committees,” he said. 

“However, there is still a relatively small number of female chairs on the ASX 300. Given that the most likely career background for an ASX chair is as a former CEO, progress will be slow until more women are appointed as company CEOs.”

The AICD report noted that 51% of ASX 300 chairs had a career background as a CEO.

According to analysis by Chief Executive Women (CEW), of the 28 CEO appointments in the last financial year, only four were women. 

To address this issue of gender diversity on Australian boards, it would need to begin with a focus on executive teams, said Nicola Wakefield Evans, chair of the 30% Club Australia.

“The time to act is now. The current pace of change just isn’t good enough. Organisations need to take meaningful steps to identify talented women to fill executive roles and ultimately the CEO role,” she elaborated. 

“Boards need to hold themselves accountable for identifying potential female CEOs and any barriers that exist for making this possible. The momentum that has been generated on boards can serve as a lesson for what’s possible with real and meaningful action.”

In 2022, there were 141 ASX 200 boards and 195 ASX 300 with at least 30% women.