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There has long been an understanding in popular culture that the boards of Australia’s major corporations are dominated by men, largely of an Anglo-Celtic background.
And while the data shows there is still a whole lot of truth to this assumption, there are a number of women of culturally diverse backgrounds who are challenging these institutions to better reflect the multicultural Australian landscape.
The inaugural Citizens Day breakfast from the organisation Women on Boards brought together a number of business leaders who are working to break down these historic barriers.
Koon Lai is a Malaysian-Chinese executive coach with over 20 years of leadership experience, including as Transformation Program Director at PwC.
She says boards are a microcosm of the country and executives have an obligation to represent modern Australia at that top level.
“How multiculturalism is viewed in Australia, whether as a threat to the country or as an asset to the country sets the tone in terms of the sense of belonging for all Australians, whether they are going towards division or cohesion. And boards are a microcosm of our nation. And as they think about the culture that they’re looking for in their organisation, boards must consider what are they building towards divisional cohesion? Do they see multiculturalism as an asset or actually a threat?”
2024 figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show over 30 per cent of Australians were born abroad and the last census showed just 54 per cent of Australians now claim an Anglo-Celtic background.
This stands in stark contrast to the demographics seen in most corporate board rooms.
The 2024 Board Diversity Index from Watermark Search International and the Governance Institute of Australia shows 91 per cent of all directors at the top 300 companies listed on the Australian stock exchange are people with an Anglo-Celtic background.
This led the index to brand ASX 300 boards as the “whitest shade of pale”.
Ms Lai says a big part of the issue is that companies are often drawing from an exclusive pool of candidates that culturally diverse women have limited access to.
“So it’s either people with the responsibility where they interact with board members, so typically they’re P&L owners. Then, there is also who you know that can refer you. And then the third one is the executive search. P&L owners or the executive, predominantly 95 per cent are Anglo European. And so you have a very small pool of people that have non-Anglo European background. And so that is the first barrier where there is this kind of systemic filter. So in the first place there’s challenges getting the access to opportunity to board roles and then, when you’re in there, you are one and only. And one and only does make it really difficult for you to be able to contribute your point of view and actually get that diversity of thinking.”
These barriers remain despite significant progress on gender equality seen in company board rooms with the representation of women rising by 89 per cent since 2015, and now sitting at 36 per cent.
Claire Braund currently serves as chair of the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music and is a co-founder of Women on Boards.
She says the organisation celebrates this significant increase in the number of female company directors but their focus is now advocating for women who still rarely get that opportunity.
“So our goal has always been to see a 40-40-20 split. So 40 per cent men, 40 per cent women, 20 per cent either and or any other gender. And we felt that since 2006 we’ve made huge gains towards that. So with that done, what we thought that we would do is we thought, let’s look at some of the intersectionality within gender. So when Women on Boards started, we never wanted to replace what was largely an old white boys club with a new white girls club. And we thought, what we really need to be doing is starting to shift the dial, shift the needle on the number of culturally diverse women on boards.”
The latest index shows the number of First Nations directors within the ASX 300 remains at just four, or 0.2 per cent.
This is well below First Nations people’s three per cent of the Australian population.
Nareen Young, Associate Dean at UTS Business School and leader of the Indigenous People and Work Research and Practice Hub at the Jumbunna Institute, says this is largely due to structural racism.
“I’m often the only First Nations and culturally diverse person in a room. Clearly the lack of any form of diversity beyond gender on Australian boards is symbolic of the structural racism that exists. Why aren’t first nations, culturally diverse, people with disability, LGBTIQA+ people good enough, skilled enough for boards? Well, we are in fact, so why aren’t we being picked? So that’s the problem and that’s what we need to discuss.”
She says the lack of board roles for First Nations people, especially women, comes from a false perception that they’re not equipped for the job.
“The perception is that we simply can’t do those jobs or don’t have the experience or education or intelligence. And so the responsibility on people who are the first and will be scrutinised in their every move is enormous. So it’s a matter of the people who make the choices, opening their minds to possibilities rather than the other way around.”
Maryam Zahid is an award-winning Afghan-Australian human rights champion with over 23 years of experience in the community sector.
She says, when women like herself do have the opportunity to be a board member, they’re often not expected to fulfil the same duties as other members.
“If we get an opportunity, and I have been lucky to be on the boards, it was very much the conversation around about your cultural background in the community’s cultural events and expectation. Not about the governance, not about the policies, not about the strategy planning. So that really kind of challenged me to challenge the system and some organisation that I was serving on their board and I had to kind of even resign from some of those places because it didn’t kind of make me feel that I am contributing. It felt more like I’m wasting my time and their time as well.”
Executive coach Koon Lai says, when corporations and organisations go beyond rhetoric to truly reflect the multicultural landscape in their leadership, it can increase community trust.
“The more that we see that representation in organisations that represents women, the more that when the community can see itself in the leaders of those organisations, there’s heaps more like trust and authenticity that comes with it. So you can’t say, right, we’re all about diversity, but from a representation point of view, it’s still homogenous. It’s great to see Women on Boards actually role modelling what does that look like in terms of expanding the notion of diversity and the intersectionality of diversity?”
