Deloitte: Gender diversity on boards doubled in firms with female chair

• The publication explores the efforts of 64 countries to promote boardroom diversity.
• Reveals 15 percent of all board seats are filled by women globally, representing a 3 percent increase since 2015 edition of the publication.
• Companies with a female chair have nearly double the number of women serving on boards as compared to when boards are led by a male chair (29 percent versus 16 percent, respectively). The numbers are nearly identical when looking at female CEOs and the number of women serving on their boards as compared to male CEOs (29 percent vs 15 percent, respectively).

KUALA LUMPUR, 7 June, 2017 — Asian Women are still largely under-represented on corporate boards, despite continued efforts to improve boardroom gender diversity. Released today, the fifth edition of Deloitte Global’s Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective publication explores the efforts of more than 60 countries to promote boardroom gender diversity, and reveals that women hold just 15 percent of board seats worldwide. These numbers show only modest progress from the 2015 edition of Women in the Boardroom.

For the first time, the publication includes a region-by-region analysis of the relationship between corporate leadership and diversity. A direct correlation was found between female leadership (CEOs and board chairs) to board seats held by women.

“Organisations with women in the top leadership positions have almost double the number of board seats held by women. The inverse is true as well, with gender diverse boards more likely to appoint a female CEO and board chair,” said Dan Konigsburg, senior managing director of Deloitte’s Global Center for Corporate Governance. “This illustrates an important trend—as the number of female CEOs and board chairs climbs, it is likely to spur greater board diversity. Yet, the percentage of women securing top leadership roles remains very low, with women holding only 4 percent of CEO and board chair positions globally.”

The 2017 publication also reported statistics from larger economies in Southeast Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand – as well as Vietnam which is new to this edition.

“The percentage of women occupying board seats in Asia (7.8 percent) is improving but the pace of change is still slow compared to global statistics (14.5 percent in North America, 22.6 percent in Europe). There is much more that can be done to create an environment that would enable women to break the glass ceiling to accelerate boardroom diversity. Strong leadership is needed to change the board’s composition by focusing on identifying capable and board-ready individuals. This guidance could come from the CEO, chair, lead director and/or committee chairs, who can source such candidates, among others, who have undertaken programmes such as Deloitte’s Board-ready Women Programme,” said Dr Ernest Kan, Deloitte Southeast Asia Centre for Corporate Governance Leader.

The percentage of board seats held by women in Singapore has increased by 1.7 percentage points to 10.7 percent whereas board chairs that are women have declined by 1.6 percentage points to 5.4 percent. “As markets become more sophisticated and expectations rise for boards to include directors with different backgrounds and expertise, diversity has become nothing less than a business value,” said Ms Seah Gek Choo, Deloitte Singapore Centre for Corporate Governance Co-Leader.

“Much of women’s abilities to reach our career and leadership goals lie within ourselves and so we need to remove the self-imposed career blocks and propel ourselves to seize opportunities in leadership roles,” added Ms Seah who chairs the local initiative of Deloitte’s Board-ready Women Program to prepare talented women executives for board service.

Bridging the gender divide in the workforce is not only a matter of fairness, but also of effective governance and inclusive economic growth.

Inclusive growth and the future of work

As organisations navigate technological and societal shifts which are transforming the future of work, boards will have a critical role to play. Diversity of thought—and people—will be critical to ensure that board members are exploring challenges from every angle and consistently bringing a fresh point of view.

“Enhancing the diversity of the workforce and fostering inclusive growth is top of mind for Deloitte,” continued Konigsburg. “To support these goals, we are actively involved with initiatives ranging from our engagement with the B20 to increase female workforce participation, to our collaboration with the OECD in support of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes bringing gender equality to the center of economic development.”
Konigsburg added, “Deloitte also continues to advocate for diversity in boardrooms through our ‘Board Ready’ programs which are delivered across the globe to help prepare women for board service.”

Highlights of additional findings from the research include:
Boardrooms across the Americas region are not highly gender diverse

• In the U.S., only 14 percent of board seats are held by women, a 2 percentage point increase from the 2015 edition. The percent of female board chairs has not progressed, remaining at just under four percent. 
• The percent of board seats held by women in Canada grew to 18 percent, a 5 percentage point increase since 2015. The percentage of boards led by women dropped from 6 percent in 2015 to 5 percent in 2017. 
• In Latin and South America overall, only 7 percent of board seats are held by women and 2 percent of board chairs are women.

Progress across EMEA varies significantly

• Norway, the first country to ever introduce a gender quota, has the highest percentage of board seats held by women (42 percent). 7 percent of board chair positions are held by women.
• In the UK, there are no quotas in place for women on boards, but 20 percent of board seats and 3 percent of board chair positions are held by women. 
• The percentage of board seats held by women has increased to 28 percent in Italy. However, the number of female board chairs fell 14 percentage points since 2015 to 9 percent.

Boardroom diversity in Australasia is on the rise

• There are no gender quotas in Australia for women on boards; however, the numbers continue to improve. The percentage of board seats held by women is currently 20 percent and 5 percent of board chairs are women.
• New Zealand achieved the strongest growth since 2015, with the number of board seats held by women increasing to 28 percent (a 10 percentage point increase) and the number of female board chairs increasing to 11 percent (a 6 percentage point increase).

Asia-Pacific lags behind other regions

• At 8 percent, gender diversity in some of Asia’s leading economies is the lowest compared to other parts of the world. Only a few countries in the region have quotas or other approaches to address the issue.