28 October 2008
Decline of women at the top a real concern for Australia
Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, called today for action to be taken to address the decline in representation of women on boards and in executive management positions in ASX200 companies, which has left Australia lagging well behind other major Western economies.
The 2008 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership results, released today, report a decline in female board representation from 8.7 per cent in 2006 to 8.3 per cent today.
“The results of this research raise many troubling questions for women attempting to climb the corporate ladder in Australia, not least of which is why the representation of women that hold board directorships here is so far behind equivalent representation in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand,” Commissioner Broderick said.
The research has found that, in Australia, only 49 per cent of ASX200 companies have at least one Board Director who is a woman, compared to 88.2 per cent of top US companies, 76 per cent in the UK, 62.4 per cent in South Africa and 52.8 per cent in Canada.
“It is particularly worrying when you consider that, in the last census, only the US was ahead of us in terms of companies having at least one female executive manager,” the Commissioner said. “Now we have slipped backwards while other countries have moved ahead of us.”
Commissioner Broderick said it was of particular concern that the proportion of women in line executive management positions - the feeder position for CEOS and executive roles - had decreased from 7.5 per cent in 2006 to 5.9 per cent in 2008.
“The question we have to ask of ourselves, and our business community, is what this means for women in line management positions,” said the Commissioner. “Are we sending a message to women waiting in these feeder positions that their opportunities for advancement are drying up - and, if so, why?”
The census also found that more women serve on multiple boards than men, which in turn indicates that the pool of individual executive women holding these positions is even smaller than the statistics imply.
Given the implications of these findings, Commissioner Broderick said there was a real sense of urgency to find out why this decline has taken place and to devise action that will reverse it.
“We need to find out if there is active discrimination taking place at the top of our most successful companies - are women choosing not to proceed in business because of limited choices or a perception that they are not essential to company success?” Commissioner Broderick said. “It is imperative that we investigate this situation so that future generations of women can approach their careers with the same confidence as their male counterparts.”
Media contact: Brinsley Marlay 02 9284 9656 or 0430 366 529
