Oceania leads on female representation in the board room, yet nearly half of companies did not have any women on their board, a new study finds.
Over a five-year timeframe, companies with more female senior executives performed better.
Companies across the globe are appointing more women to their boards. Oceania leads the charge with a 58% increase in women holding board positions over the last five years, compared with the global average of 43% growth in female representation on the board. This new data comes from The Refinitiv ESG database’s Board Gender Diversity.
India has the largest increase in female representation
Focusing on the subregional analysis, the data shows the largest representation of women on the board in France, Sweden, Germany and South Africa. And the largest increases of women board representation in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sweden and Canada.
Other findings show:
- Women make up 19% of boards on average globally, increasing by 43% over five years. Asia came bottom of the table, with only 9% of women on boards
- Asia Pacific has the second largest increases of women board representation over five years of 53%, compared with other regions, Oceania (58%), Americas (43%), Europe (37%)
- In Asia Pacific, Malaysia is leading with 25% of board members being female, followed by 21.5% in Australia, 15% in Singapore, 12% in Hong Kong and 9% in China
- The top 50% of companies in the ASX 200 (100 companies) by female board representation performed better than the full ASX 200 over five years
Why fewer women are populating the C-suite
This research over the last couple of years paints a concerning picture. The findings show that the overall pool of women executives that feeds into the C-suite is still growing at a slower rate than the growth of women on company boards, not unexpected considering gender diversity board quotas are in place in several countries. While the growth rate of female board members increased by 43% over the last five years, the overall number of female executive members increased by just 20%.
More senior female representation, better performance
However, nearly half (48%) of companies did not have any women on their board – and a staggering 74% do not have any women in senior executive positions. Yet the research shows that over a five-year timeframe, companies with more female senior executives performed better than all companies within the STOXX 600 and ASX 200.
When the data shows that hiring more women in senior positions is good for business, it’s hard to see why the majority of companies are not taking this issue seriously. With the economic instability caused by COVID-19, companies who are leading the way on gender diversity may well be the ones that fare better.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
