By Melissa Higham - 4 May 2012
Once again gender diversity in New Zealand business is making
the news as the NZX proposes to require issuers to disclose the
gender composition of their Boards and senior management teams as
part of their annual reporting.
The NZX believes that gender diversity is directly correlated to
managerial performance with organisations with greater gender
diversity performing better at higher managerial levels.
A survey carried out by the Human Rights Commission in 2010
revealed that women only hold about 9% of private directorships in
NZ and 21% of management positions reporting directly to the
CEO. However, most of these companies have no female
directors at all.
This compares poorly with other developed economies and with
other businesses in NZ, notably professional firms. Legal and
accountancy firms have become increasingly diversified over the
past 20-30 years. Indeed Martelli McKegg recently topped the
rankings of large and mid tier firms in NZ with women comprising
45% of our partnership (http://www.lawfuel.co.nz/news/268/nzs-most-female-friendly-law-firms).
Similar changes to those proposed by the NZX were introduced in
Australia and resulted in a 50% increase in the number of female
directors within just 18 months.
We welcome the changes proposed by NZX and believe it will
assist in delivering the improvements in corporate performance that
NZ needs.