Deloitte’s 7th iteration of its Women in the boardroom: A global perspective report has highlighted an average of 11.7% of board seats in Asia are now held up by women—an increase of 2.4% from 2019, whilst the number of women that are board chairs and in C-Suite positions have also seen an increase. Noticeably, the highest concentration of women in board positions was found in Southeast Asia (17.1%) with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines also reporting the largest increases though Indonesia saw a slight decline.
The global study of over 10,000 companies spanned across Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA and found that women hold 19.7% of board seats globally. As the study suggests, if the uptake rate remains consistent, gender parity will be achieved in 2045, down from 2052 in the previous edition. Though female board representation has seen an increase, there was only a 0.6% rise in the number of women holding CEO positions. This suggests that placing women on boards does not necessarily translate to progress across leadership positions.
Greater Equity
In the financial hub of Singapore, women held a much larger representation on board than the regional average (17.6%), though still short of the global average. Businesses in Singapore also reported a much higher representation of women in the C-Suite with Singapore having the most female CEOs in the region. This better representation of women in senior management positions and leadership roles in Singapore is proving to be a springboard for women in the city to join company boards, though the pace of change is still too slow, the report notes.
However, In Hong Kong, the number of board seats held by women was 13.9% in comparison. Though above the regional average, the report noted that there is still considerable room for improvement in the overall levels of gender diversity in the city as the percentage of boards that are all-male have actually increased since 2019. As such, the report suggests that Hong Kong businesses should strive to embed gender diversity into their organisation’s culture and increase gender representation in leadership positions.
Getting Younger
Globally, the age at which females take on board positions had increased to an average of 57.2 years whilst the age at which they held chair positions decreased to 57.7. Yet, Asian women were more likely to reach board level roles at an earlier age than their North American and Australasian counterparts. Asian women in chair positions were the youngest in the world taking on the role at an average of 52.5 years.
Overall, there is a mixed picture of women serving in the world’s boardrooms and the pace of change remains slow across the globe. Organisations should address these gaps as well as make progress on having women serve in executive leadership positions.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
