Just 21 chairmen of blue-chip companies are female, in a sign that women are still struggling to reach the highest echelons of corporate Australia.
Analysis by the Australian Institute of Company Directors found that although women accounted for a record 35.7 per cent of board seats among the biggest 200 companies at the end of last month, and increasingly chaired individual board committees, few were appointed to the top job.P/ASX200 companies chaired by a woman rose by just one over the past year.
“It doesn’t feel like even close to parity. There is a long way to go,” AICD chief executive Mark Rigotti said. Mr Rigotti blamed the lack of progress by women to the company helm on the dearth of female chief executives, which is the most common route to the top board role.A study of chairmen running the top 300 companies showed that just over half had CEO experience. The next most common route was investment banking, another male-dominated profession, but even then, the AICD found that only 12 per cent of chairmen were former investment bankers. Some 7 per cent were former lawyers.
“We are not saying: ‘Don’t select ASX CEOs’. To get progress at chair level, we need to think about getting more women to the CEO and into the C-suite,” Mr Rigotti said.