| Change gender mix or face quota in the board room! |
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AS the deadline approaches for S&P/ASX 200 companies to report on how they have helped promote diversity on their boards and in their workplace, the debate continues about gender equality in the workplace and whether quotas mandating a minimum number of women on boards may be what's needed.
Having introduced the parameters of reporting on the number of women on the boards of the S&P/ASX 200 companies last year, Australia's leading companies have until July 1 to increase the number of senior women within the organisation and on their boards or face the questions, "if not, why not" by the Corporate Governance Council. The self-regulation was largely responsible for increasing the number of female directors of these top companies up from 8.5 per cent to just below 11 per cent in the 18 months since the idea was introduced, but many think the pace is still too slow. For Claire Braund, executive director of Women on Boards, an advocacy group for greater gender diversity on Australian boards, this number needs to reach 25 per cent by next year or it will be time to seriously consider quotas. "The reality is quotas are used for rural and regional Australia all the time to make sure they get a fair proportion of funding so when quotas are based on geography everyone argues madly for it, but when it's based on gender they have a huge issue with it," Braund says. "We did a survey in our network of women 18 months ago and were fascinated that 54 per cent of them supported legislated quotas for ASX companies. "There were comments such as: 'There has been such a glacial rate of change that until we start to bring some heavier regulation around this issue we cannot see these intrinsically male-dominated companies changing.' " Braund believes some tools could help to increase gender diversity in Australia before introducing quotas. Source: The Australian |
