A quarter of ASX 300 companies have gone backwards on women’s representation in 2025.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
At a time when we expect progress to continue, we’re seeing a large portion of corporate Australia actually falling back on progress made.
There are still 18 companies across the 300 largest listed entities in Australia that have no women in their executive leadership teams, including one in the female-dominated retail space where the vast majority of their customers are also female: Lovisa Group.
The new data from the 2025 Chief Executive Women (CEW) Senior Executive Census also finds that women hold just 10 per cent of CEO positions on the ASX 300 and just 31 per cent of executive leadership roles.
While we’d like to think that in 2025 companies will be performing better in terms of gender diversity, we should also consider what 2025 has delivered globally to companies’ diversity and inclusion efforts. And Australia is fast proving that it’s not immune.
Separate research also published this week finds that 54 of 81 annual reports of Australia’s largest companies analysed have cut mentions of diversity, ESG and DEI. Some companies had up to 24 mentions of DEI in the previous report, only to not feature the term once in 2025. Twenty-four of the 81 companies analysed increased the use of the world diversity in their annual reports — although the volume of such increases was nowhere near the volume of decreases. As Felicity Menzie noted, this is the Trump effect at work. However, she was also quick to highlight that “overt” mentions of DEI and related terms have been removed, reflecting how companies are also rebadging this work.
As CEW President Helen Conway said, after a decade of documenting the problem — with companies seeing the results but continuing as before — there’s no real accountability to expect anything less than gender inequality persisting.
“If 18 companies reported no revenue growth, boards would intervene,” she said. “But when 18 companies have no women executives, we express concern and move on.”
Conway believes real change requires companies to tie gender targets to executive pay, and treat such targets with the same rigour as other strategic priorities. She says those with such rigorous gender targets are 2.7 times more likely to achieve balance, according to CEW analysis.
“The formula works; we just need the courage to implement it broadly.”
Helen also noted the economic case for more women in leadership.
“Gender-diverse teams are 21 per cent more (McKinsey) to outperform (McKinsey), and achieving equality could add $128 billion to Australia’s GDP (Deloitte).”
CEW CEO Lisa Annese noted the global rollback of diversity initiatives, which is occurring despite their proven benefits. “The decisions made by our largest companies will echo far beyond their offices,” she said.
“Our top companies employ millions and shape cultural norms. What they do next will determine whether we lead on equality or roll back decades of social progress.”
And with Australia having one of the most educated female populations globally, Annese also highlighted the fact that more than 30 per cent of women are working part time compared to just 11 per cent of men. This isn’t always by choice; rather, workplace structures are not supporting full participation. Annese points to flexible work arrangements and career paths that truly accommodate caregiving for all employees as necessary for enabling more women to reach leadership positions.
“Lifting women’s workforce participation to match men’s would add the equivalent of over one million full-time workers to our economy: educated workers ready to fill critical skills gaps. With sluggish productivity growth nationally and businesses desperate for talent, keeping educated women in part-time roles is economic self-sabotage.”
CEW is calling for 40:40:20 gender targets by 2030 that are tied to executive remuneration, as well as investments in gender balanced talent pipeline, more inclusive, flexible and respectful workplaces to enable full workforce participation and for companies to challenge traditional leadership blueprints and broaden pathways to CEO roles as moving beyond the traditionally male-dominated CFO and COO roles.
Women leading ASX 300 Companies
The women leading ASX 300 Companies (as of July 2025) include the following, with those appointed in the 2024/2025 financial year bolded. There are two CEOs not included, Dr Robyn Elliott who is the acting CEO of Polynovo Limited and Jayne Hrdlicka, who will start at Endeavour Group CEO on 1 January 2026.
Elle Roseby, Adairs Ltd*
Laura Tyler, Adriatic Metals Plc*
Alexis George, AMP Limited
Jane Norman, Amplitude Energy Limited
Helen Lofthouse, ASX Limited
Carrie Hurihanganui, Auckland International Airport Limited
Melinda Mcgrath, Australian Clinical Labs Ltd
Michelle Parker, Clarity Pharmaceuticals Ltd.*
Leah Weckert, Coles Group Ltd.
Jane Hastings, EVT Limited
Katie Page, Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd
Tennealle O’Shannessy, IDP Education Ltd.
Susan Van Der Merwe, Lottery Corporation Limited
Amanda Lacaze, Lynas Rare Earths Limited
Shemara Wikramanayake, Macquarie Group, Ltd.
Sophia Rahmani*,Magellan Financial Group Ltd*
Cathy O’Connor, oOh media Ltd
Vanessa Hudson, Qantas Airways Limited
Natalie Davis, Ramsay Health Care Limited*
Linda Mellors, Regis Healthcare Ltd.
Jolie Hodson, Spark New Zealand Limited
Vicki Brady, Telstra Group Limited
Michelle Jablko, Transurban Group Ltd.
Meg O’Neill, Woodside Energy Group Ltd
Amanda Bardwell, Woolworths Group Ltd*
Sukhinder Singh, Cassidy Xero Limited
Cynthia Scott, Zip Co Ltd.
Companies with no women in executive leadership
The companies with no women in their Executive Leadership Teams include the following. CEW finds common characteristics between them include the fact that they have no gender targets, are smaller companies and have a lack of women in CEO pipeline roles. Most are also in energy and resources, one is in the female-dominated retail sector, Lovisa Holdings.
ARB Corporation Limited
AUB Group Limited
BrainChip Holdings Ltd.
Capricorn Metals Ltd
Cettire Ltd.
Chalice Mining Limited
Infratil Limited
ioneer Limited
Karoon Energy Ltd
Lotus Resources Limited (Woman CFO appointed 28 July 2025)
Lovisa Holdings Ltd.
MAC Copper Limited
Monadelphous Group Limited
NexGen Energy Ltd.
Pantoro Gold Limited
Stanmore Resources Ltd
Supply Network Limited
Vault Minerals Limited