ASX 200 companies still lacking the female touch
Australia's leading companies still have work to do if they are to bridge the gender gap in their senior executive ranks, a report reveals.
Data from the BlackRock Achieving gender diversity in Australia: the ugly, the bad and the good report, found there was a "growing disconnect between the proportion of women on boards and the proportion of women in senior management in Australian listed companies".
BlackRock head of corporate governance and responsible investment for Asia Pacific, Pru Bennett, said the debate around getting more women on boards was no longer "if", but "when" the target of 30 per cent female representation will be reached.
However, she said, "women are still underrepresented at the key management personnel level in ASX 200 companies".
"This is an issue that needs concentrated focus on the part of business leaders," she said.
"It is a problem for several reasons. Effecting lasting changes in values, culture and decision-making comes from senior management and trickles down the organisational hierarchy; and having women in management roles is important as ‘women can't be what they can't see'.
"The low representation of women at key management personnel level is also a reflection of poor talent management given that for a long period of time the majority of graduates from Australian universities have been women."
The report also flagged concerns that pay equality remained an issue, with men continuing to earn more than their female counterparts, with the gap at its largest at the key management level, where men earn an average of 28.9 per cent more than their female colleagues.
Despite concerns that gender inequality was still significant at senior management levels across the ASX 200, the report noted that "year-on-year, there are more women being appointed to Australian boards".
BlackRock forecast that female representation on the boards of ASX 20 companies will be at the target of 30 per cent by 2017, with the ASX 200 set to meet the target by 2019.
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