Leadership Roles still lacking Even after More Women Join ASX300 Boards

According to the most recent analysis of the dynamic changes in the Australian Corporate world, there has been an increase in female representation on the boards of ASX300 companies over the past two years, males continue to hold the majority of CEO and chair positions.

An initial study on the representation of women on boards by a governance consulting firm for institutional investors, Ownership Matters was published two years ago and discovered that female directors now hold a record of 34.2 per cent of positions at Australia's top 300 listed companies. Over the past two years, these companies' boards have added a net 40 new female directors, bringing their total number of female board members to. 717 out of 2,098. In comparison to this, only 117 positions, or 9.6 per cent of the total board representation, were evident in 2005.

Ownership Matters conducted another study that, there are no all-male boards in the ASX200, Core Lithium (ASX: CXO) and De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG), the "two remaining outliners," both appointed their first female directors in 2023.

Ownership Matters Another study states that female leadership in the business world is still lagging, with women being "significantly underrepresented" which also shows an increase in the number of independent directors across ASX300 boards over the past two years.

According to the report, there are only four ASX300 companies with female Chairpersons and CEOs: AMP (ASX: AMP), Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX: BEN), Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYN), and Spark New Zealand (ASX: SPK).

There are only 10 female chairs and 13 female CEOs among the ASX100, while the number of female executives in executive leadership declines to just three CEOs in the second 100 of the ASX300 and to five in the third 100. There are 23 female chairs in total, more of which are more likely to be found in the back 200 of the ASX 300.

More than one-third of non-executive directors are women now, but the cohort has just produced 33 chairs among the 290 largest companies. The highest-paid professional directors in 2022 who received more than $1 million in fees, only one female (Maxine Brenner) features.

The study also discovered a rise in non-executive directors, who now make up 81.2 per cent of all ASX300 directors and 93.1 per cent of the independent directors in ASX100 companies.