Women are making slow gains on boards, while cultural diversity took a nosedive
/New research reveals that as gender diversity improves, cultural diversity falls. The Board Diversity Index, published by Governance Institute of Australia and Watermark Search International, analysed six years of 296 Australian listed companies’ data for gender, cultural, skill and age diversity.
There has, the report found, a major improvement in gender diversity on boards. Women chairs have increased for the third year running, with 561 out of 2004 board seats on the ASX 300 filled by women. That’s up 28 over 2019. Boards with 50 per cent or more board positions filled by women also increased, but are still abysmally low in number, rising to 20 companies from 16 last year.
Newly listed companies are the least likely to have gender-balanced boards, lowering the overall average. Out of the 30 new companies to the ASX 300 in 2020, and their 156 board seats, just 24 were filled by women.
Cultural diversity has not improved, however, with non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds reducing from 5.4 per cent to 5 per cent. Board directors from anywhere other than Australia decreased over the past year, about one percentage point - 30.4 per cent to 29.3 per cent. Directors with an Asian background reduced, with their spots being claimed by directors from the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
Skills diversity increased across the year, with newer directors being better qualified academically and in governance than those already in directorships. Women tend to be more qualified academically and governance-wise than their male peers. Four per cent of male board members had PhDs, while seven per cent of women held the doctorate. Seventeen per cent of men had an MBA, while 22 per cent of women held an MBA. Governance qualifications are held by 60 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men.
Female directors also tended to be younger than their male peers, on average, with the average age being 57.9 years for women and 61.5 years for men. The average age, the report says, is likely to increase over the coming years due to an overall healthier population, later retirements and women ‘settling’ into board portfolios.
