Beyond the numbers: Women’s influence on ASX200 boards

Posted on 12 Feb 2024
Updated on 12 Feb 2024
3-minute read

Women now occupy a record number of seats on ASX200 boards, but our research shows that influence—not just presence—is the real missing piece in achieving true gender equity.

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

The challenge

In 2005 women held a mere 9.6% of non-executive director seats on Australian ASX200 boards; a figure, that through the implementation of quotas and targets, saw an increase to 33.1% over the next 15 years. While quotas have provided women the opportunity to access networks that help them climb the corporate ladder, they also place the onus for producing change on the very people who are pointedly outside of the system of decision-making and not in a position to intercede (women). Therefore, it comes as no surprise that gender equity in these environments remains elusive, with women’s promotions and roles held in executive director positions (ie CEO, CFO) remaining stagnant at 6%.

To date, research on gender equality in ASX200 companies has focused on statistics – painting a blurry picture of women’s access to these leadership networks, with limited clarity on their influence and experiences in these positions. The objective of this research is to analyse and better understand the gap between the statistical gains made by women on company boards and their apparent lack of influence.

Solution

To conduct this research, a team was formed with thought leaders across UTS Finance and Accounting Disciplines, the UTS School of Computer Science and the Canada 150 Chair in Gender and Cultural Informatics from the University of Alberta. Studying the local and global power of women in board positions, the team conducted a social network analysis – using metrics such as degree centrality, betweenness centrality and k-core centrality to understand board member networks.

Outcome and impact

This project has delivered insights to inform both policy and organisational strategies focused on enhancing women’s agency on boards – providing an important contribution to the arguments and efforts intended to improve the number of women appointed to corporate boards in Australia. Through their network analysis, the team found that while the overall number of women is slowly increasing in line with the expectations of industry bodies and regulators, the agency of these women in company board networks has not improved significantly at all. Sharing these findings with industry and academia, the team are advocating for more meaningful measures of gender equity: stimulating discussions on how to achieve substantive diversity in corporate governance.

Journal articles

Verhoeven, D., Musial, K., Hambusch, G., Ghannam, S & Shashnov, M. (2022). Net effects: examining strategies for women’s inclusion and influence in ASX200 company boards. Networked Inequality: Studies on Diversity and Maginalization. DOI: 10.1007/s41109-022-00490-y