Women in SE Asia gaiining representation in boardrooms, report finds

The eighth edition of Deloitte Global's “Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective” was released on Friday, with the goal of raising awareness and promoting gender equality and diversity in the global business community. 

The report's findings revealed that when it comes to the highest executive positions, women's representation drops even further: Only 6% of chief executive officers worldwide are women, a 1% increase from our previous edition. 

With the exception of Singapore, Southeast Asian countries reported an increase in the percentage of representation of female CEOs between 2021 and 2023, which is encouraging, the report said. 

If current trends continue, global parity for CEOs will not be achieved until 2111, nearly 90 years from now, the report warned. 

Among the countries in the Southeast Asia region, Malaysia leads in terms of female board seats (28.5%), thanks to initiatives like the "one woman on board" quota for publicly traded companies. 

Although listed companies in Malaysia have yet to meet the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance's target of 30% female directors, there has been commendable progress in women's representation on Malaysian boards.

Thailand came second with 19% of board seats held by women, trailing the global average of 23.3% and slightly behind the Southeast Asia average of 19.9%.

However, the country exceeds the Asia-Pacific average of 14.8%. This represents a 1.2-percentage-point increase per year, but it is lower than Southeast Asia's overall increase.

Meanwhile, female board chairs are following a similar trend, with a 3.2-percentage-point increase in the number of women on Thai boards each year. The country has 7.2% of female board chairs, which is higher than the Asia-Pacific average of 6.9% but lower than the global average of 8.4%.

According to the report, while most leadership categories have seen progress, there are some exceptions. In Thailand, the percentage of female CFOs (chief financial officers) fell by 2.4 percentage points to 43.4% in 2023 from 2022. 

Similarly, the percentage of female board chairs in Malaysia (6.2%) and female CEOs in Singapore (11.9%) in 2023 are both down 0.3 and 1.2 percentage points from 2021. This serves as a reminder that more work needs to be done to promote gender equality in leadership. 

Seah Gek Choo, boardroom programme leader, Deloitte Southeast Asia and Singapore, said the report showed encouraging progress towards workplace diversity in Southeast Asia. The increase in the percentage of women on boards and women in senior leadership positions, such as chairs or CEOs, is commendable.

"While many countries in the region do not have legal requirements or quotas for the number of women on boards, this upward trend demonstrates a growing recognition of the positive impact of gender diversity in the boardroom, which is especially important as organisations respond to new and evolving business challenges,” she said. "Over time, I look forward to seeing such positive change snowball and accelerate in the region.” 

Globally, women hold less than a quarter (23.3%) of board seats, a 3.6-percentage-point increase since the report's last edition in 2022, indicating that gender parity will not be achieved before 2038. Furthermore, there is no clear path to gender equality in the board-chair or CEO positions. 

Deloitte Global said there is still much work to be done. 

To make parity a reality, a wide range of stakeholders would need to devote more attention and action to assist corporate boards in more accurately reflecting the societies in which they operate, and boards themselves would need to continue to take action and ask the appropriate questions.

Anna Marks, Deloitte Global chairwoman, said the business case for diversity is clear: Companies with more diverse boards perform better financially. Despite this, it is clear that a significant increase in momentum is required to achieve gender equality in the boardroom.

"With women currently still underrepresented on company boards globally, that step-change in momentum will require organisations and investors to do more to realise the benefits that diverse boards can bring,” she said. 

The study also noted that governments’ roles have a significant impact on advancing parity at the board level, and many countries around the world see the benefits of government action.

According to Deloitte Global's report, five of the top six countries with the highest percentage of women on boards in the study have some form of quota legislation, ranging from 33% (Belgium and the Netherlands) to 40% (France, Norway, and Italy). However, quotas are not the only tool for progress. Continued government initiatives, such as the use of targets and disclosures, have aided progress. 

For example, in the United Kingdom and Australia, women now hold more than one-third of board seats. While there is no magic number of board seats an individual director should hold, geography-level data show that the movement to increase gender diversity on boards has not resulted in "overboarding", as some may have feared.

However, government action alone is unlikely to achieve parity. Despite the numerous issues competing for investor attention, stakeholders, including investors, should remain vigilant in setting expectations around gender diversity.

Meanwhile, since many companies prefer to recruit board members with CEO experience, these numbers do not paint an optimistic outlook for pipeline development. 

The report suggested that companies should expand their skills-profile requirements to diversify their boards further and shore up critical skill gaps, and build the pipeline of future female leaders so that progress can be sustained and enhanced into the future. 

Deloitte Global chairwoman Marks emphasised that board agendas are more packed than ever before, and the challenges and emerging areas that boards must stay on top of are only growing. 

She pointed out that directors must remain focused on gender equality in order to advance progress as organisations strive to create more equitable and balanced boardrooms and C-suites with true diversity of thought.

"Business leaders across markets should commit to collaborating on these matters; sharing their challenges as well as their successes, having the courage to ask difficult questions, and doing their part to help accelerate the timeline for achieving gender parity in the world's boardrooms and C-suites," she said in a statement. 

The most recent edition of the report examined more than 18,000 companies in 50 countries and geographies, looking at women's representation on boards as well as insights into the political, social, and legislative trends that underpin these figures.