Women's Census 2008

The third New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation 2008 released today by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission reveals a worrying report card for women’s equality. In particular the rate of progress for women in corporate boardrooms remains dismal and New Zealand has fallen behind Australia and Great Britain.

Sixty top 100 companies on the New Zealand Stock Market (NZSE) have no women on their boards and only three more top 100 companies added a woman to their boards in the past two years. Women hold only 8.65% of board directorships of the top 100 companies on the NZSE with 54 female directorships held by 45 women out of a total of 624 directorships. The proportion of female directors in NZSE companies has moved only 1.52% in two years, a painfully slow increase.

The figures are even worse on two other New Zealand Exchange markets where female representation of board directorships is 5.73% in the 53 companies listed on the New Zealand Debt Market which includes companies such as Fonterra, and 5.07% female board representation in the 28 companies listed on the New Zealand Alternative Market (NZAX). In fact, the proportion of women directors has decreased dramatically from 16.39% in 2004 on the NZAX.

The lockout of women from corporate governance in New Zealand is mystifying at a time when corporate social responsibility and the value of diversity are routinely subscribed to. Women increasingly are consumers, customers, employers, employees, managers and investors. So why are they also not directors of companies for the ultimate benefit on the New Zealand economy? Why is sex and corporate power in New Zealand so dominantly male?

The third benchmark Census report states that “there is no evidence that the New Zealand corporate sector is responding to any of the arguments advanced for the presence of women on boards making good business sense. These rationales are:
• the labour pool argument (increasing numbers of women in the workforce and encouraging them to stay),
• the market argument (women constitute an increasing share of most consumer markets),
• the governance argument (women’s presence often improves corporate governance), and
• the bottom line argument (companies that smash the glass ceiling enjoy higher profitability).”

The absence of mentoring for women, the inability to gain practical experience as a female director, and the tight club of male directors who nominate and appoint similar other men, are identified as reasons why women do not advance. Female directors of New Zealand Crown companies (34.07% of Crown company directors are women) do not appear to be attractive to publicly listed companies as directors despite their considerable governance experience in the state sector.

The corporate sector will need a significant sea change to embrace diversity in governance as a value in itself that creates wealth. It needs one or two board chairs as male champions to break the pattern of current informal recruitment and appointment practices. The latest British report on female directors states, “ the key change makers are the chairs of boards who have been prepared to lead the debate on gender diversity, to insist on female candidates, to mentor aspiring female directors and most important of all, to run their boards in exemplary ways”.

Women’s organisations, too, have a role in encouraging women’s leadership. For example, Rural Women New Zealand and women with equity in dairy farms could promote suitable women for the board of Fonterra, and other major companies.

Meritocracy in boardrooms should be the aim of every Board of every company. The all-male status of 60 per cent of the boardrooms of top 100 companies distances companies from their customer bases and shuts out half the talent pool. For New Zealand to continue to lead the world in gender equality there will need to be radical change in corporate boardrooms. Board chairs, other directors, investors, company customers and clients must awake to the prospect of better corporate governance involving qualified, capable and available female directors.

Download a PDF copy of the New Zealand Census of Women's Participation 2008 report.