Women on boards

It is nonsense to assert that mandatory quotas should be imposed on Australia’s top 200.

Once again the cry has gone out for mandatory quotas to increase the number of women on Australian company boards. Curiously enough, the catalyst for this latest call by lobby group Women on Boards is a report – its own – showing that female participation on the boards of a range of organisations is growing.

This surely is good news, but not according to WOB. Because the proportion of women on the boards of S&P/ASX 200 companies has remained more or less static at 8.7 per cent, the progress achieved elsewhere has been dismissed as irrelevant.

As reported in BRW this week [25 March 2010], credit unions, sporting organisations and rural and research boards have all boosted the proportion of women directors. WOB’s Boardroom Diversity Index measured the ratio of male to female board members in almost 800 organisations and found that most sectors have increased the number of female board members since 2007.

The best performers were national sporting organisations, which increased their proportion of women board members from 14 to 26 per cent, and rural R&D boards (13 to 22 per cent). Credit unions increased the percentage of female directors from 19 to 21 per cent.

But WOB cannot see past the poor representation of women on the boards of Australia’s top 200 public companies. It argues that the top end of town’s argument that it will take time to improve the representation of women on Australia’s blue chip boards has itself run out of time.

WOB executive director Claire Braund says her organisation will continue to advocate mandatory quotas.

This is a misguided call. The growing profile of women on the boards of a range of organisations confirms the view by many senior directors that it will take time and generational change for the emergence of a critical mass of women with the qualifications and experience to be considered for the boards of our biggest companies.

This is not to deny that historically many of our most prominent boards have been impenetrable “boys clubs”, but these boardrooms have been equally closed to a great many men who have wanted to break into these establishment havens. Today, claims of widespread entrenched discrimination against women in our biggest companies cannot be supported.

It is simply nonsense to suggest that there is an ingrained institutional prejudice among Australia’s blue chip companies that does not exist in other spheres of power and influence. Quite apart from the rise of women directors in a range of organisations as documented by WOB – and many of these women will surely go on to occupy more prominent board positions – the fact is that Australian society has women in positions of power, authority and prestige in a range of institutions.

Women in power are no longer an oddity to be remarked upon: women viceroys, including governor-general Quentin Bryce; women state premiers, including Queensland premier Anna Bligh, the first woman to be popularly elected in her own right; deputy prime minister Julia Gillard; and women chief justices. Two of the most prominent voices representing Australian business are Heather Ridout of the Australian Industry Group and Katie Lahey at the Business Council of Australia.

It is nonsense to assert that despite the prominence of women in the highest reaches of Australian society that somehow this one group alone – Australia’s top 200 companies – warrants mandatory quotas.

Plainly there are reasons why women do not have a greater presence on Australia’s elite boards. But there is no evidence of systematic discrimination or recalcitrance among the men who dominate these boards. (And where there is it should be exposed and prosecuted.)

The lack of progress on Australia’s top 200 boards is at odds with the growing gender diversity in the rest of Australian society. To suggest that a statutory quota is the only answer to the poor representation of women on our top boards – a situation that of course must be better understood and acted upon – is lazy and mischievous. It is akin to hoisting the white flag.

To comment please send an email to brweditor@brw.fairfax.com.au.

BRW

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