'Glacial progress' for women at the top

April 3 2006 - Women are making only glacial progress in board appointments to top New Zealand companies, according to a new report, The New Zealand Census of Women's Participation 2006, released by the Human Rights Commission and the Centre for Women and Leadership at Massey University.

The report shows that women have only 46 of the 645 directorships in the top 100 companies. Just two companies have gender parity on their boards. New Zealand is lagging well behind similar countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA for gender balance at board level

EEO Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor said:

"Almost two thirds of the top 100 companies listed on the NZSX have no women at the governance level."

"Women account for just 7.13 per cent of corporate governance positions, up a dismal two per cent from the last census two years ago. We need to ask why women aren't on boards in the corporate sector and what we can do about it."

Female board representation in businesses listed on the other two New Zealand securities markets is even worse, with women making up a mere 5.29% of the NZDX and 5.74% of the NZAX.

"Gender progress on the NZAX has fallen sharply since 2004 when women were 16.39 per cent of boards of directors, which is a worrying trend," said Judy McGregor.

The report also looks at women's status in other areas, including state sector bodies, universities, law and the judiciary, the media, trade unions, politics, the defence forces and school boards of trustees.

According to Dr McGregor, ministerial appointments of women to state sector bodies and committees had reached 41%, this being the first ever comprehensive stocktake of the sector.

"However, gender representation on Crown companies that operate major public utilities - such as power, energy, postal services, public broadcasting and airports - has remained static in the last two years, with 35 per cent of women on their boards."

Progress in academia has also been 'grindingly slow' with women holding just 16.91% of senior positions senior positions (Professor or Associate Professor), up by slightly over 1% from 15.82 percent two years ago.

The report's co-author Dr Susan Fountaine said: "It's disappointing that since 2004, half of New Zealand's eight universities have lost ground in terms of their percentage of senior women academics. The slight overall improvement is almost entirely due to gains by Massey University. The southern universities have made little or no progress and continue to lag well behind their northern counterparts."

See also: Unions serious about women's participation