New data shows Australia’s largest companies still ‘overwhelmingly’ male-dominated

New research conducted by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) shows that women make up only 9.5 per cent of board chair roles and 6.5 per cent of CEOs across the ASX 200.

Women currently account for over 36 per cent of board seats in the AXX50 and nearly 35 per cent of seats in the ASX 200. While every ASX 200 company now have women directors on the boards, seven ASX 300 laggard companies are without a woman on their boards and three have never appointed a woman director.

With a gender balance target of 40 per cent women in place, ACSI CEO Louise Davidson says there are still ways to go and more needs to be done to address the gender imbalance.

“While it is encouraging that the number of women on boards continues to rise, more needs to be done to boost the number of female chairs and CEOs. And we expect those boards without any women at all to remedy the imbalance,” Ms Davidson said.

“More board diversity improves governance standards at companies and is strongly linked to long-term shareholder value.

“Recent examples of sexual harassment at some of Australia’s largest companies reinforce the importance of board and executive accountability when it comes creating a safe workplace and promoting gender equality,” she added.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.