Summary:
- Women account for 34.3% of all seats on Australian government controlled boards and bodies.
- Women hold 20% of roles of Chair or Deputy Chair on Australian government boards.
- 28.3% of Commonwealth parliamentarians are women.
- In the private sector, 8.7% of board directorships are held by women.
- 6 out of the top 200 Australian companies had female Chief Executive Officers in 2006.
- Women hold 12% of all executive managerial positions in the private sector and 35% of senior executive positions in the public service.
In this part:
Women in Government
Commonwealth Parliament
As at 28 November 2006, there were 64 female members of the Commonwealth Parliament. There were 27 women in the Senate and 37 women in the House of Representatives. This brings women's participation in Parliament to 28.3%, rising from 25.4% following the 1998 Federal election and 14% following the 1993 election.1 As yet, there have been no Indigenous female members of the Commonwealth Parliament.2
Australian government boards and bodies
As at 30 June 2006, women occupied 34.3% of positions on Australian government boards and bodies where the Australian Government has total control over the appointment. This represents an increase of 5.4 percentage points since June 1996 (See Figure 6.1). Women held 20% of roles of Chair or Deputy Chair on Australian government boards.3
Figure 6.1: Women on Australian government boards and bodies 1995–96 – 2005–06
Source: APPOINT Report 2006: A statistical analysis of the composition of Australian government boards and bodies 1 July 2005 – 30 June 2006, Office for Women, Table 8.
Women's representation on Australian government boards and bodies varies across government departments (See Figure 6.2). As at 30 June 2006, women's representation on government boards and bodies was over 50% for the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. The Departments of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Health and Ageing and Human Services all recorded figures over 40%. Three departmental boards and bodies still had representation of women under 20%.
Figure 6.2: Women on Australian government boards and bodies by department, June 2006
Source: APPOINT Report 2006: A statistical analysis of the composition of Australian government boards and bodies 1 July 2005 – 30 June 2006, Office for Women, Table 1.
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Australian Public Service
Women now comprise the majority (55.8%) of the Australian Public Service, an increase over 47.7% in 1996.4 Figure 6.3 shows that women's representation at the APS 1–6 levels range from 51.4% (APS 6) to 68.4% (APS 4). Women account for 42.2% of all executive positions and 34.8% of all senior executive positions.4 However, between 1997 and 2006, growth in female representation at the executive and senior executive service levels has been faster than the growth in representation at lower classifications and women's representation at the APS 1–2 levels has declined substantially (Figure 6.4).
Figure 6.3: Employees in the Australian Public Service by classification group and gender, June 2006
Source: State of the Service Report 2005-06, Australian Public Service Commission, Figure 2.7.
Figures are weighted and indexed. Weighting uses the total number of ongoing employees at June 1997 as a base. Weighting eliminates the effects that the change in the overall size of the APS has on representation. The index is given a value of 100 at June 1997, and rises and falls proportionally with the particular group's change in the weighted number over time.
SES1 – SES3 relate to levels of the Senior Executive Service
EL1 and EL2 relate to Executive Levels 1 and 2
Less senior classification levels range from APS1 to APS6.
Figure 6.4: Change in the number of women at selected classifications, weighted and indexed, 1997–2006
Source: State of the Service Report 2005-06, Australian Public Service Commission, Figure 2.8.
Of Indigenous people in the Australian Public Service, 66.3% are women. Indigenous women occupy 36.8% of senior executive service positions held by all Indigenous people. This equates to 0.9% of all women in senior executive service positions in the Australian Public Service. At the APS 1–2 levels, Indigenous women held 63.8% of all positions held by Indigenous people at these levels, representing 4.8% of all women at these levels.5
Private company directors and managers
Since 2002, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has conducted a census to measure the status of women on boards and women executive managers in the nation's top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Figure 6.5 shows the status of women in leadership positions as at 1 February 2006.
Figure 6.5: Women in leadership positions in top 200 ASX companies, February 2006
Source: 2006 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership, Figure 1.
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Board directors
In 2006, women held 8.7% of board directorships in the top 200 ASX companies (129 seats out of 1,487), a slight improvement over 8.2% in 2004.6 Over the same period, there has also been an increase from 10.2% to 13.5% in the percentage of companies with two or more female board directors and an increase from 7.1% to 12% in the percentage of companies in which women comprise 25% or more of the board. However, there has been a slight decline in the overall representation of women on boards. In 2006, 50% of all companies surveyed had at least one female Board Director, compared to 50.3% in 2004 and 51.5% in 2003.
Executive managers
Women accounted for 12% of all executive managerial positions in the top 200 ASX companies in 2006. This represented a small increase from 11.4% in 2004. The percentage of companies with at least one female Executive Manager slightly increased from 59.4% in 2004 to 60.5% in 2006. More companies had two or more women Executive Managers in 2006 (30%) than in 2004 (26.4%).
Chief Executive Officers
In 2006, there were six female Chief Executive Officers in the nation's top ASX 200 companies.
Women's leadership by industry group
Figure 6.6 shows the percentage representation of women on boards and female executive managers by industry group for the top ASX 200 companies. The telecommunications services, retailing, consumer services, banks, and insurance industries have the highest percentages of female Executive Managers and female Board Directors. The automobiles and components, commercial services and supplies, and capital goods industries all have fewer than 5% female Board Directors and low representations of female executive managers.
Figure 6.6: Female Board Directors and Executive Managers for Australia's top 200 ASX companies by industry group, 2006
Source: 2006 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership, Figures 14 & 15.
References