Gender equality progress in executive teams too slow: How can we turn this around?

Recent research has revealed the state of gender equality in senior leadership teams. While there is slight progress being made, more needs to be done if we’re to see any substantial results anytime soon.

The Chief Executive Women Senior Executive Census revealed that, shockingly, 91 per cent of ASX 300 chief executives are male. Meanwhile, 71 per cent of senior leadership positions are held by men, and just 23 per cent of ASX 300 companies have gender balance in their executive teams.

While these results aren’t great, there has been a slight improvement over the last year. The 2022 Chief Executive Women (CEW) data revealed that it would take 100 years to achieve gender parity in ASX 200 chief executive roles. 2023 saw six more women appointed to these positions, causing the estimate to drop to 50 years.

“The change that has occurred over the past 12 months is very promising, and now is the time to accelerate towards genuine gender diversity, for the good of all,” commented CEW president Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz.

“Diverse women’s leadership is an undeniable force for our country and an economic imperative.”

“Gender equality not only benefits society and the economy, but it also drives greater profits, better ESG outcomes and overall outperformance for business.”

Now, all ASX 100 companies have at least one woman on their executive teams, an improvement from last year. However, there are still 28 companies on the ASX 300 that have no women in executive teams.

Chief executive positions are seeing a slight turnaround in representation, with 10 out of the 42 total appointments being women in 2023. This is up from four out of 28 in 2022. These results must improve year on year if we’re to see any real change on the horizon.

“Corporate Australia has an opportunity to leverage the full talent pool and unlock the full prize of diverse women’s leadership,” explained Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz.

“The CEW Summit is an opportunity to hear from some of the world’s most influential and respected voices and focus on what tangible actions can lead to real change in workplaces across Australia.”

Setting targets is a great way to achieve gender parity goals. CEW revealed that companies that set better gender targets were three times more likely to achieve them than those that didn’t.

Ramping up diverse development policies is a great way to initiate real change. Providing opportunities for women to develop their careers and step into leadership positions can help organisations boost their representation in executive teams.

According to CEW, companies that make a considerable effort to turn these statistics around could accelerate change. It’s the hope of CEW that the right policies could push the 50-year parity estimate down to a decade.