The number of women being appointed to ASX 200 boards continues to grow at a faster pace then during the whole of 2009, with 27% of all board appointees this year being female, new figures from the Australian Institute of Company Directors reveal.
The new numbers show 31 women have been appointed to ASX 200 boards so far this year, compared to just 10 during the whole of 2009 – meaning women make up 9.8% of members of ASX200 boards.
“Encouragingly, 27% of all ASX 200 board appointees this year have been female, compared to just 5% in 2009 and 8% in 2007 and 2008,” the AICD said in a statement.
AICD chief executive John Colvin said in a statement that as far as the group is aware, the 9.8% figure is the highest proportion ever recorded.
“This, and the fact that 27% of board appointments this year have been women, shows that real progress is being made on this important issue.”
“However, despite this welcome increase, we still have a long way to go. As we have consistently said, the proportion of women on listed company boards in Australia is not good enough and needs to be increased.”
Colvin pointed to the ACID mentoring program, which it says is the largest of its kind in the world and should help a large number of “board ready” women obtain positions on boards.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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