Login
‘Progress going backwards for women reaching corporate senior leadership roles’
Moving at the current rate, it will take 100 years for women to make up 40 per cent of all chief executive positions on the ASX300.
Jess Feyder
The progress for women reaching the most senior leadership roles in corporate Australia is going backwards, finds a 2022 census.
CEW president Sam Mostyn AO noted that the CEW census indicates that incremental change is not good enough.
“In light of the recommendations from the Jobs and Skills Summit, and the critical job shortages across the economy, it is staggering to see the stalling, or reversal, of women’s representation on leadership teams in many companies.
“In this economic environment, it is vital that we enable women’s participation and leadership, one of Australia’s most available resources.
“We are calling for business to take purposeful, immediate action and for investors to demand gender balanced leadership teams at the companies they invest in.
“We must act now, or we know it will take 100 years to reach parity in CEO positions,” said Ms Mostyn.
CEW census data shows the number of women CEOs in the ASX300 has not improved since last year; it remains at 18.
This year, more ASX300 companies have no women in their executive leadership teams compared to last year.
Anecdotally, the appointment of women into top leadership roles has been seen as “risky”.
The risk is actually in not appointing skilled, capable women who are ready to step into leadership, the census finds.
“Our census shows that our best-performing companies are more likely to have set and achieved gender balance than companies lower in the ASX300,” said Ms Mostyn.
“This reiterates what we already know — businesses achieve better results when there is gender balance.
“This is not just about equality — this is about smart economics and future productivity.”
However, CEW census data shows that the setting of gender-balanced targets is continuing to gain traction, with the percentage of companies implementing these targets increasing by 7 per cent in the past year (51 per cent for the ASX100 and 36 per cent for the ASX300).
Other key findings include:
- Fewer ASX300 companies have gender-balanced executive leadership teams;
- Of 28 CEO appointments at ASX300 companies in the past year, only four were women;
- Women hold one in four executive leadership roles in ASX300 companies;
- Women hold just over one out of 10 management roles with profit and loss responsibilities (line management roles) — which are traditional pathways for CEO appointments;
- Almost half of ASX100 companies have no women in roles with profit and loss responsibilities;
- Sectors leading the way with women on executive leadership teams are Utilities and Communication Services.
This includes “strong talent pipelines and opportunities, particularly in line areas, are created for women to accrue suitable experience throughout their careers so they’re ready to ‘step up’ into senior roles that typically act as ‘feeder roles’ when it comes to appointing CEOs”, she said.
Specific actions needed by businesses, investors, and governments were identified in the CEW Census.
Businesses are encouraged to set and monitor gender-balance targets for leadership teams and line roles; to reduce gender bias in recruitment and promotion processes; and invest in building the pipeline of women leaders.
Investors are encouraged to embed a gender lens when making investment decisions and to urge companies to set gender-balance targets with clear time frames and implement policies that enable gender equality.
Recommended actions for the government include giving priority to organisations with gender-balanced leadership for government procurement; strengthening corporate reporting requirements to ensure companies publish company gender pay gap data.
Along with placing care at the centre of the economy and investment in well-paid, secure jobs in care industries; and delivery of universal early childhood education and care.
“This year, Australia has a choice,” stated Ms Mostyn. “We can continue to hope for the incremental progress of women into leadership; or we can be bold, set purposeful targets, be accountable and harness one of our greatest opportunities for success.”
The 2022 CEW census was released on 6 September at the CEW Leadership Summit in Melbourne and is supported by CEW partners Bain & Company, Spencer Stuart, Melior Investment Management, HESTA and 40:40 Vision, as well as CEW’s thought leadership partner ANZ.
