WESFARMERS and Sundance Resources are among seven of Australia’s top-listed companies to have appointed women to their boards during the past two months, helping lift the proportion of female directors on ASX 200 companies to almost 10 per cent.
Wesfarmers appointed Vanessa Wallace to its board as a non-executive director on July 6.
Sundance appointed Fiona Harris on July 12.
The Australian Institute of Company Directors said the appointments of Ms Harris and Ms Wallace, along with five other women since June 25, had lifted the percentage of women on ASX 200 boards to a record 9.8 per cent.
So far this year, 31 women have been appointed to ASX 200 boards, compared with 10 for the whole of last year.
“We have already seen this year more than three times the number of women appointed than for the whole of the 2009 calendar year,” chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, John Colvin, said.
“This, and the fact that 27 per cent 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.”
Mr Colvin’s concern is reflected in a survey by Chartered Secretaries Australia, which found that more than 60 per cent of ASX company boards have not discussed how they would comply with changes to ASX guidelines on gender diversity.
The survey found that while 86 per cent of companies were aware of the impending changes, less than 40 per cent of boards had discussed how their company might meet the new reporting requirements, which begin on January 1 2011.
CSA president Peter Turnbull said the findings highlighted the need for practical guidance to ASX companies on how to diversify their boards and senior leadership teams.
He said this was particularly the case for smaller companies, which were concerned that their size and historical structures would affect their capacity to diversify their boards and senior management – and were in many cases reluctant to do so.
Executive director of Women on Boards, Claire Braund, said half of the company secretaries in the ASX200 would have to report they did not have one woman on their board – and that these companies were better informed and resourced than those further down the ASX.
“Developing gender diversity policies should be a priority for companies, particularly those listed on the ASX, in order to meet the January 2011 deadline,” Mr Turnbull said.
