Two years ago only 29 per cent of Carlton's staff were women. Now, that number is 50 per cent, but there was never an explicit quota or target for hiring more women, Carlton CEO Steven Trigg says.

While Trigg admitted there was still plenty of work to do to make the AFL industry a more female-friendly environment, he said there had been an intangible but positive shift in atmosphere through the club with the arrival of more female staff. That was then boosted by the introduction of Carlton's AFLW side in 2016.

"Our ability to grow as a club depends on having more women. Previously we had one woman on the board [it is now two out of eight], not enough women through our club executive or administration, poor female membership and very few female coterie members," Trigg said.

"Our ability to grow depends upon our authenticity in those areas. But more than that having more women at Carlton is the right thing to do."