WHILE THERE has been a gradual increase in the number of women stepping up to senior positions, Australia’s corporate boardrooms are still dragging their feet with the number of women board directors increasing by only 0.2 per cent to 8.6 per cent
WHILE THERE has been a gradual increase in the number of women stepping up to senior positions, Australia’s corporate boardrooms are still dragging their feet with the number of women board directors increasing by only 0.2 per cent to 8.6 per cent.
Figures from the latest Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Census of Women in Leadership have revealed that the number of women executive managers in Australia’s companies listed on the ASX has increased by 1.8 per cent to 10.2 per cent, while the number of women in line positions, where experience is most often garnered for rising to the most senior positions, has increased by just 1.8 per cent to 6.5 per cent.
Significantly, the number of companies in the ASX200 with no female executive managers has decreased by more than 10 per cent since the census was first conducted in 2002, however this is still a high 42 per cent. The number of companies with two or more women executive managers has increased to nearly 25 per cent – a rise of 6.3 per cent since 2002.
The fact that the figures have remained relatively constant over the last three years demonstrates that there are still significant barriers to women achieving senior positions in corporate Australia, according to EOWA Director, Anna McPhee.
“Fly business class on any given day across Australia and you can see that women are just not up there in equal numbers to men,” she said. “The ‘pointy end’ of the plane is telling it how it really is in boardrooms and at senior management levels around the country.”
Despite women’s workforce participation climbing to the highest ever rate of 45 and 56 per cent of university graduates being female, women are still scarce in the top most corporate positions.
Of the ASX200 companies, women hold only two chairs of boards and four CEO positions, even though a recent Catalyst report found that women are just as likely as men to covet the top jobs.
McPhee said the results of the of the 2004 EOWA Census were confronting for anyone who believed that Australia is at the forefront of international business competitiveness.
“As corporate leaders face issues surrounding access to a skilled workforce, retention and sustainability, they need to look closely at culture, job design and workplace flexibility if they are going to win the global talent war.”
