100th International Women's Day: Women still marking time in the boardroom

Women on Boards - MEDIA RELEASE

Australian boards are not becoming more gender diverse and we run the risk of sidelining this critical issue in the hype surrounding the ASX200, a leading advocate and broker for women into board roles warned today.

Women on Boards used the occasion of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day to remind people that women occupy fewer than 25 per cent of board roles on all but Government boards, and this is not trending upwards.

Launching its 2nd Boardroom Diversity Index, the only comprehensive publicly available index that tracks the performance of key sectors in our economy on gender diversity in the boardroom, Claire Braund, co-founder of Women on Boards, said it was easy to get carried away by the media hype surrounding the ASX.

“While ASX200 boards have increased directorship positions held by women by more than two percent in the past year, there is little or no movement in any other of the key sectors in our economy,” Ms Braund said.

“The 2nd Boardroom Diversity Index shows that some sectors, such as Credit Unions and Building Societies, have gone backwards in terms of the numbers of women and there has been little improvement in their processes around selection.”

“A lot of people and organisations have suddenly found religion on the ‘women on boards’ issue, but the reality is that we are still fiddling at the margins when it comes to significantly addressing the percentage of women on boards and committees.”

Government to introduce quotas

Ms Braund said Women on Boards is calling on Governments at all levels to follow the South Australian Government example and introduce mandatory gender quotas for all publicly funded boards and committees. This includes Cooperative Research Centres, Rural Research and Development Corporations and National Sporting Organisation, which are all heavily funded by taxpayers.

“Where public money is involved there is a clear case for boards to be more gender and skills diverse. This not only improves governance and performance, but increases Australia’s standing in the international community, where it is clearly not well regarded in this area.”

Everyone else on notice

ASX companies, in particular the 85 in the ASX200 who still do not have a woman on their board, as well as Superannuation Trustees, Credit Unions and Building Societies are all on notice that they need to significantly lift their game over the next year.

“We are all praising ASX200 companies, but they need to double the rate of appointment of women this year to achieve our target of 25 per cent by 2012,” Ms Braund said.

“This is really not a difficult task as there are plenty of experienced and qualified women who are ASX board ready – without additional training.”Ms Braund said.

"Women on Boards has the CVs of approximately 2,500 board ready women from its subscription base of 10,500, so here is a good starting point for any organisations not sure where to look," Ms Braund said.

Women on Boards has a free vacancy posting service for companies seeking to advertise to high quality female applicants and will conduct private searches on request.

Boardroom Diversity Index - http://www.womenonboards.org.au/pubs/bdi/2011/index.htm