The 40,000 directors and senior leaders who are members of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) could be put in an uncomfortable position early next year. They may be forced to accept their organisation calling for government-mandated quotas on publicly listed companies.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The AICD had set a target for 30 per cent women on its boards by the end of 2018.
But the group's latest gender diversity statistics show 11 ASX 200 companies have no women on their boards (down from 13 last survey), and 64 have just one.
"We are not going to get to 30 per cent by the end of next year," says AICD chairwoman Elizabeth Proust, who is in favour of quotas but says her organisation is yet to vote on the matter.
The issue isn't just the fact that there are still companies with no women on their boards - the zero-women boards are going out of fashion and should soon drop to seven as four them have appointed women since August or are about to.
The real issue is the one-woman boards, says Ms Proust.
Ten of the 64 companies with a lone female director have been there for three years or more. And since she got appointed, multiple men - as many as eight or nine - have been appointed.
"One is the loneliest number," the AICD report says, pointing out two notable cases: First, Harvey Norman whose board has remained consistently male for the past 30 years. (On a good note, Harvey Norman is one of just 11 companies in the ASX 200 with a female chief executive - Katie Page). Second, the Tatts Group board which hasn't appointed another woman to its board since 2005.
One female director on the board does not equate to gender diversity, Ms Proust says, adding her suspicion is that companies are appointing one woman "as a way of getting us off their backs".
"Maybe the focus now needs to be on these boards with just one or two women," she says.
The conversation about quotas will no doubt be heated at AICD's first board meeting next year. The AICD's data shows the overall percentage of women across ASX 200 boards has stalled - at the end of August there were 25.4 per cent female directors across the ASX 200 - only marginally above the 25.3 per cent achieved by the end of 2016.
"2017 has been a disappointing year in terms of the number of female appointments to ASX 200 boards," Ms Proust says.
When the AICD and other groups like Chief Executive Women (CEW) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) publicly name and shame companies for their lack of diversity and gender pay gaps, senior executives hate it.
"They don't like it at all," Ms Proust says. "They will ring up and say, 'look we had a woman but it didn't work out'."
There could be a miracle - if all 64 companies immediately appointed another female director to their boards, in addition to the companies without a female director, then the 30 per cent target would be reached.
But it's unlikely, Ms Proust says. So in the meantime, she'll keep selling the business case for diversity - companies with more women on boards and in senior leadership make more money, as numerous studies have shown. Those who think seven men all from similar backgrounds make the best decisions will lose out, Ms Proust says.
The percentage of female directors across the ASX 200 has risen since 2009 when it stood at just 8.3 per cent. But the current number of ASX 200 companies with at least 30 per cent female directors is just 66.
11 ASX 200 companies with no women on their board (as at 31 August 2017)*
- CIMIC Group
- Mineral Resources
- TPG Telecom
- Reliance Worldwide Corporation
- Qube Holdings
- ARB Corporation
- Evolution Mining
- Australian Agricultural Company
- Flight Centre Travel Group
- Speedcast International
- Investa Office Fund
*The above list is correct as of August 31, 2017. Four of the companies listed have appointed a woman or announced they are appointing a woman post the August 31 reporting period. These are Qube Holdings (September 1), CIMIC Holdings (September 21), Evolution Mining (October 1) and Mineral Resources Limited (October 11).
