Women directors may punch above their weight but women execs are on the ropes: EOWA Report

While there are about 12 male board directors to every woman board director, when women finally make it onto the boards of Australia’s top 200 companies they appear to be punching above their weight according to a research report released today by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA).  Women executive managers in the same companies however are faring badly compared to their male colleagues. 

Pay, Power and Position: Beyond the 2008 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership shows that despite their low overall representation at board director level, once appointed women appear to be at least as influential as their male counterparts. The research shows that among the 89 individual women holding board seats, nearly half chair at least one board committee while only a third of the 1091 men holding board seats chair at least one committee.  

EOWA’s research also shows that women are just as likely as men to chair the most influential board committees such as audit, remuneration and governance committees. 

However, at the executive manager level, women are being funnelled into support roles and remain underrepresented in key leadership positions.  Women hold only 7% of key management personnel positions, those positions designated by a company in its annual report as having the most authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling activities of the business.  Women are more likely to hold positions that have a low likelihood of being key management personnel such as human resources and public affairs. 

Acting EOWA Director, Mairi Steele, says “This report adds to EOWA’s Census of Women in Leadership and to our understanding of why women are so under represented in senior leadership roles in Australian businesses.  Sadly, regardless of which way you look at the data, women are still disadvantaged and their skills are being underutilised”.  

“The EOWA report shows that it’s not just about the absolute or relative numbers of women on boards, or at executive manager level, it’s also about the pay, power and position of women compared to their male colleagues.”  

While the data shows that women board directors are more likely to have gender pay parity with male board members, most likely due to fixed remuneration, the pay gap for women key management personnel is on average 28.3%, 11% higher than the national average gender pay gap in February.  

Female key management personnel in support roles earn 37.4% less than their male equivalents and those in line management positions earn 10.4% less than the male equivalent. Women in CEO and finance positions earn less than half of their male equivalents and even in occupational categories that are female dominated, such as legal and human resources, women’s median salaries are still less than men’s.  

The EOWA report, released on 17 June 09 by the Minister for Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek examines the pay, power and status of women in senior leadership roles in Australia’s Top 200 companies. The report is based on research conducted by Macquarie University as part of the EOWA 2008 Australian Census of Women in Leadership. 

Key Findings

• Once women have been appointed to boards, they are as influential as men. Among the 89 individual women holding ASX200 board seats, 49.4 % are chairing at least one board committee, compared to 32.9 % of male board directors. However, because of the small number of women on boards, women only make up 11.0 % of all board committee chairs.

• The small number of women on ASX200 boards appear to be slightly better paid than their male counterparts (7.6% more on median earnings), regardless of the number of board seats held. This is most likely explained by the fact that board remuneration is generally fixed, with additional amounts for chairing key committees.

• The percentage of ASX200 executive managers who are declared Key Management Personnel increased from 66.1% in 2006 to 75.7% in 2008. While women have shared in this increase, only 7.0% of ASX200 Key Management Personnel are women.

• Only 54% of reported female executives have key manager status, compared to 78.1% of reported male executives.

• The areas in which women executive managers are most commonly represented are also those areas least likely to have Key Management Personnel status, for example, in Public Affairs, Communications and Human Resources.

• The gender pay gap for female executive managers is significant and in some positions (CEO and Finance) women earn less than half of their male equivalents. Even in positions where women are more likely to work they earn significantly less than their male counterparts.

• Median remuneration of women in line positions is 89% that of men in line positions. For support positions, female remuneration is 63% of the male median.

• Remuneration generally increases as companies get larger (measured by market capitalisation) but it increases much faster for men than for women. Remuneration of women executives in the smallest companies is closer to parity with that of men.

  For trafficked people, Government changes put human rights first

  President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Catherine Branson QC and Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, praised the federal government’s changes to the Support for Victims of People Trafficking Program and the People Trafficking Visa Framework today as humanitarian and compassionate improvements which will help people recover from appalling violations of their basic human rights.

  “With these changes, the Australian Government has provided people who have been very deeply traumatised with the certainty and support they need to recover from their experience,” said President Branson. “They recognise that human trafficking is first and foremost a human rights violation by making victim support available on the basis of need, instead of conditional on whether a trafficked person can assist police.

  “These changes, which implement recommendations made by the Commission and NGOs at the 2008 National Round Table on People Trafficking, have put the rights of trafficked people first and ended years of uncertainty for people who are currently on temporary witness protection visas,” Ms Branson said.

  Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick said that the changes to protection visas and access to victim support simplified a complex system to provide stronger protection for trafficked people and their families.

  Ms Broderick said the reforms would make an enormous difference to the lives of people who have been trafficked to Australia. First, they will make sure that victims of trafficking get access to victim support, regardless of whether they can assist police. Second, they will abolish temporary witness protection visas and speed up the process for granting permanent witness protection visas to trafficked people, as well as their immediate family. This will end years of uncertainty for people who have cooperated with police and who would face great danger if they are sent home.

  “In my role as Sex Discrimination Commissioner, I have met with people who have been trafficked and I know these changes – particularly the recognition of the importance of reuniting trafficked people with their family and the abolition of the temporary witness protection visa - will be of immense comfort and relief to them,” Commissioner Broderick said.

  Ms Broderick said the best way to sum up the changes was in the words of a woman who was trafficked to Australia and who had, for years, been left with an uncertain immigration status.

  “She said she didn’t have the words to describe how happy she felt – that having a permanent visa meant that she could have security and certainty now, that she can finally move on with her life without fear of being returned to her home country, that she could study, that she could confidently go out and get a job.”

  Ms Broderick delivered the opening address at Labour Trafficking: A forum to discuss trafficking in persons in contexts other than the commercial sex industry at the Australian Institute of Criminology in June 09.

  Source: Australian Human Rights Commission

Women for Wik's website www.whatsworking.com.au, will be launched on 28 June in Sydney by Marion Scrymgour, ex-Minister of Family and Community Services in the NT Government, Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law, Harvard, and Director of Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS and Yananymul Mununggurr, CEO of Laynhapur Homelands, Northeast Arnhemland.

Women for Wik first emerged 12 years ago in support of Native Title and was reactivated three years ago in response to the Intervention, in particular to the way things were done. Funding must come with local involvement and decision making to make it work.

Women for Wik wants to hold governments to their stated commitment to evidence-based policies by offering access to evidence of the programs that have worked, are working and could work with appropriate support. By offering the wider community a clearer understanding of what works, they hope to build support for policies that respect and enhance the capacities of our Indigenous communities to manage their own lives.

Early childhood development rated poorly in Australia, meeting only two of the ten benchmarks considered necessary to give children the best start to life. All but two of the 25 countries surveyed for the report’s Early Childhood Development Report Card - Australia and the United States - currently provide paid parental leave following the birth of a child.

‘’Mother’s Day this Sunday is a timely reminder of the important role mothers play in their child’s development,’’ said Suzanne Dvorak, Chief Executive of Save the Children Australia. ‘’Save the Children Australia urges the Federal Government to introduce a universal paid maternity leave scheme when it hands down the Federal Budget on May 12. In addition to this, significant increases in public investment in early childhood services are needed to boost the wellbeing of children.’’