The Diversity Action Committee's (DAC) recommendation to make diversity policy disclosures and target setting part of the Code of Corporate Governance could not have come soon enough.

The recommendation strikes at the heart of Singapore's lacklustre progress on boardroom gender equality, which is this: The problem that can be ignored will not be solved. But while disclosure, target setting and regular monitoring represent a critical first step, regulators must do more to ensure that the disclosures and targets adopted under Singapore's comply-or-explain regime are meaningful.

Progress on gender diversity in Singapore has been positive but frustratingly slow in the four years since the Diversity Task Force regarding Women on Boards was set up in 2012 to tackle the issue. Women's share of board seats in Singapore has improved by a mere 1.4 percentage points since 2013, to 9.7 per cent as at end-May 2016. At that pace, it would take another 30 years just to match the 24 per cent share that women hold in senior management in Singapore. Half of all Singapore-listed companies still have male-only boards.