Strategy & Practice Management

Number of female directors in Singapore on the rise

Women directors increase to 13.1% on boards of top 100 companies in 2017

Singapore’s Diversity Action Committee (DAC) announced today that the appointment of women directors had seen a 20% increase in 2017, moving up to 13.1% of all directorships for the top 100 primary-listed companies on the Singapore Exchange by market capitalisation (Top 100 companies). This is the highest increase over the past three years.

DAC is an 18-member Committee comprising corporate leaders and professionals from the business, private and public sectors, formed to address the under-representation of women on boards of companies in Singapore. It researches and provides authoritative statistics on women representation on boards of SGX-listed companies.

Of these Top 100 companies, 27 have at least 20% women on their boards, which is the first level of the triple-tier target of 20% that DAC aims to achieve by 2020. All-male boards are reduced to 32%, compared to 38% in 2016, 41% in 2015 and 46% in 2014. Two more companies have added women to their boards in January this year, further reducing the number of all-male boards to 30%.

DAC Chairman Loh Boon Chye said, “The numbers are encouraging. Boards of leading companies are paying attention to the benefits that diversity brings. With our large companies leading the way, DAC is ambitious for the other companies too, to make appointments that will strengthen their boards and the resilience of their strategies.”

“The proposed revisions to the Code of Corporate Governance pay specific attention to board diversity and gender is one of its important aspects. Disclosure of how companies achieve their diversity policy will add to investor appreciation and reinforce interest in following a company’s progress in governance in addition to its business strategy. Companies acting decisively now will stand us in good stead to achieve DAC’s triple-tier target3 of increasing women’s participation on boards to 20% by 2020, 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030,” he added.