The CEW Senior Executive Census 2021 tracks annual progress of women’s representation in the executive leadership teams of the ASX300 and includes additional analyses around the use of gender diversity targets. This year, the CEW Census shows that despite the clear business case for gender parity, women are still significantly underrepresented in senior executive teams across the nation’s top public companies, as well as being underrepresented in the pipeline for these roles.

The 2021 results provide a wake-up call to the nation’s business and political leaders and investors. In order to navigate the impacts of the pandemic and support a vibrant Australian economy, there must be a sense of urgency in harnessing under-utilised pools of talent for the workforce and leadership positions.

Key 2021 findings include:

• Only one out of 23 CEO appointments in the ASX300 in the 2021 reporting period was a woman.
• Only 18 women CEOs in the top 300 ASX-listed companies (6.2%).
• ASX200 trend data shows the percentage of women CEOs in the ASX200 is the same as it was when the Census began five years ago in 2017 (5%).
• Women make up a quarter (26%) of roles on Executive Leadership Teams – a figure CEW Census data shows has stalled in recent years (25% for ASX200 in 2019).
• Most CEOs (78%) in 2021 were appointed from line roles with profit and loss accountability and women make up just 14% of those line management roles across the ASX300.
• Women are more often employed in senior functional roles such as HR, Corporate Affairs, Marketing, Sales, Legal, Risk, Strategy or Technology which are not traditional CEO pathways.
• It will take 65 years or until 2086 before women make up 40% of line roles in executive leadership teams, based on CEW Census trends from the last five years.
• The data shows the higher the organisation is on the ASX, the better the representation of women.