Women occupied 9.5% of board seats at S'pore-listed companies in 2015, up 0.7 percentage points

FEMALE representation on the boards of Singapore-listed companies increased to 9.5 per cent of total directorships in 2015, with large companies leading the charge, the Diversity Action Committee (DAC) announced on Monday.

The percentage rose 0.7 percentage points from the 8.8 per cent tally in 2014. It was the sixth straight annual increase, according to data from DAC and its predecessor, the Diversity Task Force regarding Women on Boards.

Women comprised 14 per cent of all directorship appointments in 2015, up from 11.9 per cent in 2014 and the highest in the past 15 years, for which data is available.

Boards that had women on them also improved to 47.6 per cent, from 44.5 per cent a year earlier.

Looking beyond its shores, however, Singapore lagged many of its global peers. Women represented 11.8 per cent of directors in Hong Kong, as at Dec 31, 2015, and 10.2 per cent of directors in Malaysia in 2015.

Norway, as at October 2014, had 35.5 per cent of board seats taken by women to lead global exchanges.