In its 13th annual study of S&P/ASX200 boards titled Board Composition and Non-Executive Director Pay, ACSI found gender diversity among ASX200 boards has grown but still remains low.
“Research shows the proportion of women directors on ASX 200 boards has reached new highs,” a statement from ACSI said. “However, absolute numbers remain unacceptably low and smaller companies continue to lag behind the ASX100 on this issue.”
“Despite the rapid improvement in recent years, ACSI’s research data shows that a greater effort will be needed to move board gender diversity to a more satisfactory level in this country,” ACSI said.
The group pointed out that women accounted for 20 per cent of all ASX100 board seats and 17 per cent of ASX100 directors in 2013, improving slightly on the previous year of 18 per cent of board seats and 16 per cent of directors.
“Among the smaller cap (ASX101-200) sample, the proportion of board seats held by women rose from 10 per cent in 2012 to 12 per cent and the proportion of female directors rose from 10 per cent to 11 per cent,” ACSI said.
“Female representation among chairpersons, however, remained little changed, with only five ASX 100 female chairpersons and four in the ASX101-200,” it said.
ACSI chief executive Gordon Hagart said its approach to board gender diversity is based on the “belief that skilled and suitably diverse boards” make for better governed companies.
“Companies with no female directors will be a focus of ACSI’s engagement efforts this year,” Mr Hagart said.
