Glass ceiling still restraining women who make up only 17 per cent of CEOs

THE glass ceiling is still a blunt reality for women with new national data giving further evidence — only 17 per cent of chief executives are female.

THE glass ceiling is still a bleak reality for Australian women with new national data showing only 17 per cent of chief executives are female.

The release of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest Gender Indicators report has sparked calls for renewed vigilance and urgent action to promote women through the ranks of business.

In some industries the situation is woeful, like mining where only three per cent of CEOs are female, and financial services where the proportion of women running companies is only fractionally better at four per cent.

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Diane Smith-Gander, Wesfarmers Chairman, photographed in the dining suite at Wesfarmers head offices, 40 The Esplanade, Perth

The ABS release, which takes in data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, reveals only a quarter of key management positions are held by women. Women also hold just a quarter of all positions on company boards.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s acting director Louise McSorley said the significant under-representation of women in senior management ranks demonstrated that deep cultural change was needed.

“Australian women are highly educated, but are being held back in the workplace and in public life,” said Ms McSorley.

“We are failing to translate women’s education into workforce participation. This is a real waste of human potential and a drag on our national productivity,” she said.

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Diane Smith-Gander, the president of the organisation Chief Executive Women said it was time to stop talking about gender equality, start acting and vigilantly monitor progress.

“We are going to have to move past the rhetoric to people really believing it is important for the economy to create equality for women,” she said.

“We think the evidence is compelling that improving women’s equality will improve productivity and grow our economy.”

CareerOne: story about communication at work for June 30, 2012. Thinkstock photo - office meeting.

But Ms Smith-Gander stopped short of calling for the introduction of quotas for women in management and board positions, saying quotas were “an intervention of last resort” and should only be contemplated if other measures could not shift the statistics after a number of years.

The ABS data showed the situation in the public service is significantly better than in the corporate sector, with women now accounting for 40 per cent of all senior executive, up from 31 per cent in 2004.

The number of female Federal parliamentarians has also risen to 31 per cent from 26 per cent in 2005.