Australia:
Creating Change Without Mandates-- Private Sector
Efforts |
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Corporate governance experts
and advocates have been amazed with Australia’s success in
improving its percentage of women directors within a
short period of time. In just 1 ˝
years, it has moved from 8.3% of its board directors
being female in 2010 to 11.7% currently – a 3.4%
increase that would not have been possible years ago.
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Elizabeth Broderick,
Australia’s Federal Sex Discrimination
Commissioner, has been credited with
putting the issue of women on boards
front and center through the media and
research data provided by the
government.
She encouraged action on the part of the private
sector, with the possibility of a
government quota hanging in the air if
businesses did not respond.
Respond they did. |
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Australia's Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner
Liz
Broderick |
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The Australian Stock Exchange
now has the most aggressive and coherent approach to
gender diversity among stock exchanges globally.
It is now requiring listed companies to
report annually on the percentage of women on its board,
senior management, employees as a whole, as well as
their plans with timetables on how to improve on those
numbers. This
requirement has now moved two prominent large companies
to announce their own targets for improving women’s
representation in the senior ranks. |
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Australia’s Institute of
Corporate Directors has also promoted women’s access to
board seats through training that prepares senior
management for board positions, a scholarship program
for senior women developed with
Australia’s Office on
Women and most important, through a mentorship program
that pairs CEOs with possible women board appointees.
The AICD reports that 31% of all new
board appointments to ASX 200 boards are now female in
2011 compared to only 5% in 2009. |
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There is still a long way to go towards
parity, but Australia is making
swift progress while providing a template of
public/private sector partnership in advancing women to
senior corporate roles for other countries. |
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