All-male boards decline to 41 percent overall despite absence of quotas
The proportion of women directors at Straits Times Index (STI) constituents increased by 34 percent in 2015, with female representation reaching 10.2 percent at the end of year, reveals a report by Singapore’s Diversity Action Committee (DAC), an organization chaired by former Singapore Exchange CEO Magnus Böcker.
In 2015 women made up more than 25 percent of new appointments at these 30 Singaporean blue chips and 20 percent at companies with a market cap of more than $1 bn, while the average for all listed firms was 14 percent. This was achieved despite the fact that Singapore has no instituted quotas or mandatory disclosure requirements, DAC’s report highlights.
Gender diversity has improved among all listed firms, with women directors holding 9.5 percent of seats in 2015, up from 8.8 percent the previous year and 8.3 percent two years ago.
Furthermore, only nine firms from the STI have all-male boards, while for the whole of the market the proportion of boards with no women has declined from 54 percent in 2012 to 41 percent by the end of 2015.
This is partly due to the fact that women directorships increased by 7 percent while male directorships decreased by 2 percent in 2015, in a year where the total number of seats declined by 63. The findings also reveal that 38 percent of women appointed are first-time directors, compared with 32 percent of men.
The DAC report notes that a large number of firms in consumer-facing industries still have female board representation below the market average of 9.5 percent. Shareholders are therefore strongly encouraged to voice their concerns and engage boards on this issue. Moreover, the organization advocates the introduction of disclosure requirements ‘regarding a company’s progress toward self-set targets’ as a mean of accelerating board diversity.
‘For the past two years, we have seen a significant improvement in the number of women directors on boards of SGX-listed companies, especially at large companies,’ comments Böcker. ‘This indicates that companies are responding to investor groups’ and DAC’s call for greater gender diversity on boards, as part of a broader view of board diversity. We believe companies will appoint more women directors in the coming years as this would give them an edge in managing their risks and opportunities to bring the companies forward.’
Candice de Monts-Petit
Candice de Monts-Petit joined IR Magazine as a senior editor in 2012. Prior to this, she worked in investor relations, first as an IRO for oil and gas firms in Paris and Moscow and subsequently as an IR consultant in London. She graduated in business...
