Women on ASX 300 company boards fell to 32% in 2023
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The news: A report into diversity on Australian company boards shows a sharp decline in the number of women holding board seats over the past 12 months.
The numbers: Between 2022 and 2023, female representation on smaller Australian company boards fell from 44% in 2022 to just 32% last year.
The context: The Governance Institute of Australia and Watermark Search International’s 2024 Board Diversity Index found that while the representation of women on ASX 300 boards has risen to 36% in 2024 (up from 35% in 2023), 13 of the top ASX 300 boards have no female directors.
The index measures diversity across Australia’s top 300 ASX listed companies in five areas: gender, cultural background, age, skills/experience and independence.
In positive news, boards are progressing toward achieving the 40:40:20 rule by 2030, where boards are 40% female, 40% male and 20% of any gender. This year 123 boards (41%) hit the 40:40:20 target.
The index measures diversity across Australia’s top 300 ASX listed companies in five areas: gender, cultural background, age, skills/experience and independence.
Australian boards remain dominated by white people of Anglo-Celtic and European ethnicity, and there are now more directors with an Anglo-Celtic background than seven years ago (91%). There has not been a change to the number of First Nations directors which remains at four, although they now occupy an extra board seat with a total of seven.
What they said: Governance Institute of Australia chair, Pauline Vamos, said the report demonstrates boards are not reaching into broader pools of talent: “The recruitment of directors has become trapped in a cycle of repetition and reliance on the same outdated processes and skills matrices no longer suited to contemporary demands.”
The source: Governance Institute of Australia press release and report
