A Place At The Table aims to improve the diversity of boards of directors in New Zealand. A partnership between the New Zealand Human Rights Commission and the EEO Trust, this long-term project aims to boost the numbers of women and others in governance positions.

Resources

Pipeline's broken promise A survey of MBA alumni around the world has found that women fare worse than men in terms of salary, seniority and job satisfaction even when years of experience, parenting responsibilities and career ambitions are controlled for.

ASX gets involved in women's mentoring programme. The Australian Institute of Company Directors has launched a mentoring programme which aims to channel talented women to governance roles in the country's top listed companies. Under the scheme, 56 chairmen and senior directors of major companies will work with 63 women in a 12-month mentoring relationship.

FTSE 100 firms select overseas women for leadership roles. This May 1 Guardian article discusses latest appointments of women to FTSE 100 firms.

Making sense of the gender pay gap. This short article explores the factors that contribute to the gender pay gap in the US.

Australian businessmen support gender equality. A group of male business leaders is working for gender diversity in the corporate world.

UK government presses for more women in the boardroom. UK companies may be required to report on their efforts to get more women into the boardroom. The Government has asked the Financial Reporting Council to consider requiring companies to disclose what they are doing to increase the number of women in senior management roles.

Pipeline's broken promise. A survey of MBA alumni around the world has found that women fare worse than men in terms of salary, seniority and job satisfaction even when years of experience, parenting responsibilities and career ambitions are controlled for.

Using quotas to raise the glass ceiling. This New York Times debate explores some of the issues around using quotas to increase the numbers of women directors in Europe and the US. 22 March 2010.

Australian boardroom diversity index launch. Australian organisation Women on Boards has launched the Boardroom Diversity Index, finding that 8.7% of directors on ASX200 company boards are women. 8 March 2010.

Female CFOs a rare breed. Nick Smith of The Independent wonders about the dearth of women in CFO roles and touches on the demographics of the accountancy profession, issues referred to in the EEO Trust's research on workplace age and gender. Download the research report (4.5Mb). 5 March 2010.

The principle and practice of diversity. An article by Nicki Crauford of the Institute of Directors on how to create the best boards. Published in the National Business Review in March.

Why diversity can backfire on company boards. This January 2010 article in the MIT Sloan Management Review explores how to make the most of diversity on boards.

New Zealand overdue greater boardroom diversity, by EEO Trust Chief Executive, Philippa Reed, 31 December 2009, Business Herald.

For a summary of recent international initiatives to improve women's representation on boards go to Aequus Partners' December 2009 newsletter.

Editorial: Problem for companies, not women, 12 December 2009, New Zealand Herald.

Wong wants more women on board, 12 December 2009, New Zealand Herald.

NZX urged to get more women in top jobs, 9 December 2009, New Zealand Herald.

Australian Securities Exchange may require listed entities to disclose the gender of staff, management and directors, 7 December 2009.

Susan Vinnicombe's slide presentation to A Place At The Table (1.9Mb) 

Presentation to A Place At The Table by Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Liz Broderick (190k Word).

Video of Susan Vinnicombe's lecture Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards: Does it matter? as part of the Dean's Distinguished Speaker Series, 8 October 2009, University of Auckland. Click here for her slides (3.9MB) .

A Place at the Table media release, 6 October 2009.

New Zealand Census of Women's Participation 2008 (624K pdf)

A Place At The Table: The Way Forward

At "A Place At The Table: The Way Forward", held at the University of Auckland Business School in October 2009, prominent board chairs, senior women in governance and community representatives identified positive strategies for the future.

Visiting international governance expert, Professor Susan Vinnicombe of Cranfield University, spoke at the forum about international efforts to improve the numbers and status of women on boards.

The main ideas and suggestions from the forum have been grouped into thematic areas. There was a high degree of commonality in the ideas from the different groups of participants.

1)  Encouraging human capital reporting

• Persuading boards to report composition and diversity to the New Zealand Stock Exchange, in annual reports, etc
• Develop standards for human capital reporting 
• Make reporting on diversity for listed companies mandatory
• Mandatory advertising for Board appointments

2)   Mainstreaming the business case

• Making discussion of diversity part of business awards, AGMs,Top 200 Awards, business conferences, shareholder organisations, part of mainstream media reporting of business - not just "diversity" or HR focused media
• Engage business journalists to report on these issues
• Continue research into the business case for diversity on boards

3)   Telling the story

• Develop A Place at the Table website for continuing contributions
• Develop New Zealand case studies and local research that prove the business case  qualitatively and quantitatively, partnering with key influencers (eg Ministry of Women's Affairs, Institute of Directors)
• What are the different pathways (and alleyways) to first - and subsequent - appointments?  How can these be defined and refined?
• Profile women who are ready to be directors
• Separate out the national productivity debate from business case for diversity/women on boards
• Continue feeding information and facts to a wide range of media

4)   Men as champions

• Encourage chairs to actively state the case for diversity and tell the stories of success
• Identify potential champions in public and private sectors
• Engage and create key groups within professional bodies and institutes to support women eg Institute of Directors, legal, tax, accountants etc

5)   Mentoring and Leadership

• What do we need to do/ set up to ensure talent is mentored in an effective, long-term, and practical way?
• Ensure mentoring and education programmes for board roles encompasses financial understanding;
• Encourage women who have been successful to mentor others (eg Global Women) and to act as advocates for other women;
• Develop mentoring/leadership programmes within and across organisations (eg NZ Post, universities' Women in Leadership programme)

6)   Bridging the divide

• Open pathways between public sector and private sector boards; participants discussed the lack of crossover between the NFP/SOE and private company boards
• Skills do not appear to be seen as transferable or as relevant - yet men do cross over this divide (work needs to be done on the impact of the perception that experience in these areas is not as valid)
• Women who are successful in smaller businesses or NFPs often achieving success with fewer resources than those in larger businesses
• Ensure directorships are advertised

7)   Setting targets

• Encourage performance targets for directors
• Encourage targets for diversity on long lists for Board appointments
• Encourage targets for private companies as well as SOE boards