Women’s Vital Statistics

Women In Leadership

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about ‘why women are paid less’ – which has caused much discussion and debate. Of course, a blog is personal opinion and designed to get people talking. The comments left on the post offer such a variety of opinions.

A friend of mine sent me these statistics, which is the facts about the percentage of women in leadership roles in Australian Business. His email read:

“Check out The Statistics…

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has published the results of an Australian census on women in leadership roles. The census measures the status of women board directors and executive managers in Australia’s top 200 organisations, as listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX 200). The census aims to provide accurate statistics on which the extent of Australian women in executive positions can be compared against the international benchmark. Notably, the 2008 EOWA census revealed that not only do Australian women remain underrepresented in leadership positions, but (against the trend of immediate past years) the level of representation has dropped.

The 2008 EOWA census reported:

• four Australian boards have women as chair (2 percent) and four companies have a female CEO (2 percent);
• in the ASX 200 only 10.7 percent of executive managers are women and 8.3 percent are board directors
• the number of companies without women board directors is 51 percent;
• the number of boards with two or more women directors is 11.5 percent
• the percentage of companies with 25 percent or more women board directors is 6 percent
• 45.5 percent of companies have no women executive managers
• the number of boards with two or more women executive managers is 23.5 percent
• the percentage of companies with 25 percent or more women executive managers is 16.5 percent,
• the percentage of women board directors and executive managers in Australia is lower than in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, UK and the US.

Most notable was the finding that the number of women on boards and in executive management positions had declined since 2006, and in some cases reverted to pre-2004 levels.”

Thanks to all those people who are adding to the debate. Debate is an essential part of changing the state of play.