Room for improvement: more women needed in executive roles
- Wed 31 January 2024
- 3 MIN READ
Although change is occurring, research shows there’s still not enough women in senior leadership positions.
“According to the results, only 23 per cent of ASX 300 companies have gender-balanced executive leadership teams, up six per cent since 2022.”
While the benefits of gender-balanced leadership are well documented, corporate Australia is still a long way from achieving this status, according to the seventh annual CEW Senior Executive Census.
Commissioned by Chief Executive Women, an organisation that represents senior female leaders from all spheres, the Census tracks the progress of women’s representation in the leadership teams of the country’s largest publicly-listed entities.
The 2023 results show change is happening, but it’s at a pace that means we won’t see gender parity at the CEO level until the 2070s.
According to the results, only 23 per cent of ASX 300 companies have gender-balanced executive leadership teams, up six per cent since 2022.
Some 28 ASX 300 companies have no women at all in their executive leadership teams, down from 46 the previous year, and 44 in 2021.
The picture is slightly brighter at the very top end of town. At least one woman is now present on the executive leadership team of every ASX 100 company.
Overall, men currently account for 71 per cent of all ASX 300 executive leadership roles, with women’s representation up two per cent from 2022.
A tiny but growing minority at the top
Only 26 ASX 300 companies have a woman at the helm, up from 18 in 2022. Of the 42 CEO appointments made during the past year, 10 were female. By contrast, women scored just four of the 28 CEO roles that became vacant in 2022.
The 2023 Census found too few women were positioned to step into the top job, with 82 per cent of CEO ‘pipeline’ roles – chief operating officer, chief financial officer and group executive – currently held by men.
Some 42 per cent of ASX 300 companies and 27 per cent of ASX 100 companies have no women in pipeline roles. These figures represent a significant improvement on 2022, when 61 per cent of ASX 300 companies and 49 per cent of ASX100 companies had no women in the pipeline.
Overall, women’s representation in this elite waiting room was up three per cent on 2022 numbers.
“At the current rate of change, it will take over a decade to reach gender parity in executive leadership teams, and up to 50 years to achieve it in CEO roles.”
Accelerating change
At the current rate of change, it will take over a decade to reach gender parity in executive leadership teams, and up to 50 years to achieve it in CEO roles, according to CEW.
The organisation has called on ASX 300 companies to pick up the pace, by setting 40:40:20 gender diversity targets for 2030 – 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men and 20 per cent of either gender – and increasing their investment in gender-balanced executive talent pipelines.
Thirty-nine per cent of ASX 300 companies and 55 per cent of ASX 100 companies have already adopted these targets. They are three times more likely to achieve gender balance than companies that leave it to chance, the Census report noted.
CEW recommends ASX companies introduce pro-active succession planning, encourage male leaders to sponsor diverse emerging women leaders and instigate bias-free recruitment processes.
It wants companies to be accountable and transparent about their progress towards gender parity, by tracking diversity, equity and inclusion metrics and reporting on them, internally and externally.
Encouraging inclusivity
CEW also flagged the importance of building inclusive, flexible and respectful workplaces, where flexible working is normalised, and gender norms removed.
What’s good for ambitious, high performing women is even better for business, CEW president Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz noted in the Census report.
“Research, both in Australia and internationally, has found that on average, companies with gender balanced leadership teams perform better. They deliver greater profits, have stronger talent attraction and retention, achieve higher returns, drive better ESG outcomes, have lower overall risk profiles and have better credit ratings,” she said.
The more ASX companies employ women in executive roles, the more they will enjoy these benefits.
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