Women rising up

Pansy Wong, Women's Affairs Minister, says New Zealand can benefit by getting more women in boardrooms. Photo / Richard Robinson

Australia's new initiative that requires listed companies to set targets to get more women at the top is having a massive impact, says Women's Affairs Minister Pansy Wong.

Wong told a seminar this week that the Australian stock exchange's incoming corporate governance guidelines on gender diversity had already resulted in a huge jump in the number of women on boards.

More than 20 per cent of director appointments to the ASX's top 200 companies this year were women. That was up from 5 per cent last year.

"Thirty-one women were appointed to listed companies on the ASX in the first half of this year, 21 more than in the whole of last year," she said.

Wong is lobbying the NZX to follow its Australian counterpart and introduce a similar regime. She pointed out that more than 30 New Zealand companies were also listed on the ASX and would have to abide by the new rules.

Only 8.6 per cent of NZX 100 company directors are women, while the changes in Australia mean a similar percentage for ASX 200 companies last year has now increased to 9.2 per cent.

Wong was speaking at a seminar organised by the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust (EEO) in conjunction with the Australian-based Women on Boards group.

Professional director and Women on Boards chairwoman Ruth Medd said of the 40 women now on ASX 200 boards, 25 were positions that weren't there last year.

"It's really interesting that a bit of soft regulation does wonders," she said.

One of her organisation's key efforts was to offer a transparent director recruitment process and advertise vacant roles. "If you don't know about the gigs you can't apply for them."

The ASX's new guidelines - requiring listed companies to set targets for more women at the top of their organisations and to account for their progress - come into force officially in January.

But companies such as the ASX itself, Woolworths, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia had got in ahead.

This had created competition for experienced women, Medd said.

"What's going to make the change stick in Australia is competition between organisations to find female talent."

Fiona Shand, principal of law firm Shand and Associates, which advises companies on governance matters, said last year was a watershed for female representation on Australian boards. "If you look at boards around the world they can be defined by three words - pale, male and stale," Shand said.

A study three years ago showed that when companies put three or more women on their boards or in senior management positions their returns to shareholders increased 17 per cent, she said.

Professional director Denise Aldous, who is on the board of Australian rugby league club the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks, said she developed an interest in sport to get on in male-dominated corporate environments.

"What I found was it became the one thing that gave me a natural entry point."

The Sharks had faced a raft of problems, including its players' off-the-field behaviour, and she felt female input could help.

She received many emails from women telling her their children idolised the players and they wanted them to be better role models.

She inquired about Mad Monday - an end-of-season tradition where players "let their hair down".

"I said, 'That's not going to happen, is it?

"Someone needed to ask the question and often it doesn't happen," she said.