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Women on Boards Seek Men of Courage

The other day I got to thinking about the fact that I have actually built the Nation’s leading business women’s networking organisation on the appalling lack of gender equality in Australian companies.  

When I established WNA back in 1990, the percentage of women appointed to boards of ASX companies sat at around 6%. I find it hard to comprehend that after all these years the figure is still only sitting at around 8.8%.

The corporate sector should be wrapped over the knuckles. Can you imagine them fronting up to shareholder meeting reporting a 2.8% profit and taking nearly 20 years to achieve it?

What amazes me is that whilst the business sector can’t seem to locate any significant number of women with merit to sit on their boards, WNA manages to attract 40,000 of them every year - what gives guys? Just so you are aware, we’re not sitting around at WNA business events knitting and discussing recipes. Findings in a recent Catalyst study found that companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams performed better financially than the groups with the lowest female participation.

Why is it then that Australian Governments continue to just sit on the fence on this issue? Maybe they’re hoping we girls will just go shopping or get our hair done and forget about it. Obviously they need to look harder as my research tells me there’s an amazing talent pool of women out there ready and willing to pull up a chair at the boardroom table.

My question is, why can’t our Government be politically courageous and use the ‘Big Stick’ approach on business like that taken by the Norwegian Government?

In December 2003 they gave companies five years to either ensure that women held 40% of the seats of each listed company or risk closure. Can you imagine the name calling, kicking and screaming that went on during that process – like trying to keep calm at the dinner table between a tribe of five year olds. But the Norwegian Government stood its ground and guess what, when the requirement came into effect on January 1, 2008 statistics showed that 39% of board representatives in public limited companies were women. The mandatory requirement has worked so well that consideration is now being given to extending the law to cover family-owned companies as well.

With this sort of unpalatable legislation no one wants to go first but other countries are now following the Norwegian Goverment’s courage and leadership. The Swedish Government is proposing that by 2010 any Stockholm Stock Exhange companies that do not have 40 per cent of women should be fined and the Spanish Parliament has passed legislation calling for 40 percent board particpation by 2015.

Mr Rudd, how about leading with courage?  In your world a swing of 2.8% might seem an achievement but it’s not a figure to be proud of when it comes to the gender equality outcomes for our country’s private boards. 

Lynette Palmen AM is the Founder and Managing Director of Women’s Network Australia, the leading business and professional women’s networking organisation in the Nation. Subscribe FREE to WNA’s weekly eNoticeBoard service or read more about Lynette and why she started WNA.

Contributed by Lynette Palmen .   Lynette Palmen AM is the Founder and Managing Director or Women's Network Australia. She started WNA 20 years ago to offer support, inspiration and services that would inspire women to succeed in their career and business endeavours. WNA is now the Nation's premier networking organisation for business and professional women. T: 1800 052 476.

Lynette Palmen has written 44 article(s) for us.

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