New trend data analysis has determined it would take 100 years for women to take up CEO positions at even 40 per cent of Australia’s biggest companies because gender equality is progressing at a fkn snail’s pace down under.
The number of women in power in the top 300 ASX-listed (Australian Stock Exchange-listed) companies actually went backwards in the last 12 months, according to the Chief Executive Women Senior Executive Census 2022 report released on Tuesday.
The chair of a new prime ministerial equality taskforce Sam Mostyn, who published the report, said Australian companies had “stalled” their promotion of women and the number of gender-balanced leadership teams went down from 58 in 2021 to 50 in 2022. Yuck.
The number of ASX companies that had no women at all in their executive leadership teams also rose — 47 companies have no women in executive teams in 2022 compared to 44 in 2021.
Moyston called the results “shattering” and dangerous to our economy.
“What this means for preparedness for the kind of economic future we face is staggering — to see so many companies squandering this opportunity,” Mostyn said ahead of the Chief Executive Women (CEW) Leadership Summit in Melbourne on Tuesday.
“The higher you go on ASX, the more likely you are to have women represented on leadership teams. These are the companies we admire and that do well.”
Moyston said investors actually preferred gender-balanced leadership teams and that having more women in senior roles meant the businesses performed better. Workers also generally report better workplace culture when they’re not led by a bunch of crusty old white men. Shocking.
She also said Australia had “the most highly educated women’s cohort in the world” but they were often held back by roadblocks such as the lack of affordable childcare, inadequate paid parental leave and stigma.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will also speak at Tuesday’s summit where he will say the report is a “wake-up call”.
“We cannot, as has been the case during the pandemic, keep demanding women bear more and more of the load — while they slip backwards in positions of leadership,” a copy of his speech provided to the SMH read.
But he will say all this just one day after his government said they wouldn’t commit to extending paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks.
“Australia has a choice,” Mostyn said.
“We can continue to hope for the incremental progress of women into leadership or we can be bold, set purposeful targets, be accountable and harness one of our greatest opportunities for success.”
100 years for a couple more women CEOs is not gender equality.
The ball could not be more in your court, Albo.
