Progress is not just slow in getting more women into CEO positions across Australia’s largest companies; it’s actually going backwards.
Today’s new Chief Executive Women report shares that just 25 women are leading ASX 300 companies, down from 26 in 2023.
And that’s not the worst of it.
The pipeline of women for such positions is tiny, while just one in eight CEO appointments went to women, compared to one in four in 2023.
As CEW president Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said on the findings, this is “regression, not progress”, with corporate Australia leaving “some of our best talent on the bench”.
The report makes for some alarming reading, especially for those who expect progress on women’s leadership to simply keep happening, albeit slowly.
It’s especially alarming when you consider how much rhetoric there is from employers regarding their desires to nurture more female leadership talent, as well as the scrutiny placed on companies to foster more gender diversity.
But in 2024, all the talk around the importance of gender diversity isn’t making it happen.
And in 2025, 2026 and beyond, the current lack of pipeline of women in these companies suggests we’ll continue to see little, if any, change in the number of women in CEO positions.
The CEW 2024 Senior Executive Census shows that 82 per cent of what’s considered standards “CEO pipeline roles” are held by men. Meanwhile, 20 companies have no women in their executive leadership teams, and seven in 10 executive leadership roles are still held by men.
Australia is not alone in seeing a slowed pace of change for female CEO appointments.
Just one in ten CEOs of the UK’s largest companies are women (12.2 per cent), along with 10.6 per cent in the United States and 8.3 per cent in France. In Germany, just 2.6 per cent of CEOs are women.
These dire numbers continue despite the strong business case for female CEOs.
In 2020, research by Bankewest Curtin Economics and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency found a direct link between having a woman at the top and company profitability. Having a female CEO led to a five per cent increase in the market value of an ASX-listed company, according to the research, worth the equivalent of $79.6 million on average. This research also showed a link between more women in leadership positions and an increased likelihood of the company outperforming in its sector on three or more key profitability and performance metrics.
So what’s helping in 2024 when it comes to women being appointed?
Gender targets are making some difference, with CEW finding that 27 per cent of ASX300 companies have achieved gender-balanced Executive Leadership Teams, a four per cent point increase since 2023. Companies with gender targets are 3.6 times more likely to achieve gender balance in leadership than those without. But just 40 per cent of ASX 300 companies have set a 40:40 or better target on gender.
CEO believes there’s significant opportunity for companies to invest in gender-balanced CEO and leadership talent pipelines, setting accountability-linked gender targets and building more inclusive, flexible, and respectful workplaces.
The CEW Report identifies several outliers in achieving significant progress on their gender-balanced leadership split, which CEW says in many cases comes down to implementing gender equality accelerators.
One such outlier is Xero, with a female CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (pictured above) and 63 per cent of its ELT team made up of women..
Other companies that have achieved a 40:40 or better gender target in their Executive Leadership Teams from 2017 to 2024 include Metcash (moving from 0 per cent women in ELT to 67 per cent in 2024) as well as Magellan Financial Group, QBE Insurance Group, Jumbo Interactive, AMP and Integral Diagnostics. Also on the list is G8 Education, Stockland, and AGL Energy.
While the report does not suggest ‘naming and shaming’ as an effective tool, it’s worth listing out the 20 companies that still have no women in their Executive Leadership Teams, as outlined below.
The 20 companies with no women in their Executive Leadership Teams
Alpha HPA Ltd A4N
BrainChip Holdings Ltd BRN
Capricorn Metals Ltd CMM
Cettire Limited CTT
GDI Property Group GDI
Grange Resources Limited GRR
Hotel Property Investments HPI
Ioneer Limited INR
Karoon Energy Limited KAR
Latin Resources Limited LRS
Lotus Resources Limited LOT
Meteoric Resources NL MEI
Monadelphous Group Ltd MND
PWR Holdings Limited PWH
Ramelius Resources RMS
Red 5 Limited RED
Sayona Mining Limited SYA
Stanmore Resources Limited SMR
Syrah Resources Ltd SYR
Wildcat Resources Limited WC8