Chief executive or chair positions of ASX200 companies likely to be held by men named Peter, David or Michael, and women remain severely underrepresented

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

There are more men named Peter in the chief executive and chair positions of companies in the ASX200 – Australia’s 200 largest listed companies – than there are women.

Research by Australian diversity and productivity researcher Conrad Liveris was prompted by a similar analysis published in the New York Times, which found there were fewer women leading America’s top companies than there were men named John.

Liveris’s analysis found that of the 400 CEO and chair jobs on the list, 23 were held by women. The same number were held by men named Michael.

There were 26 Peters on the list, and 22 men named David.

In the ASX100, the balance swings toward the Michaels, who hold 14 positions compared to the 10 positions held by women. But Peters and Davids need not despair - they both outnumber women, with 12 Peters and 11 Davids.

Telstra chair Catherine Livingstone, the only woman among the chairs and chief executives of the ASX20, is outnumbered four to one by men named Michael.

Liveris said the results showed just how ingrained the bias against women was in Australia’s leading companies.

“I don’t think organisations can actually sit there and say they are using the best talent pool when they have that situation – where more than 50% of the population is out-represented by men named Michael or Peter,” he said.

Liveris said that workplaces would struggle to become more diverse without intervention, like a quota, because “people like seeing their likeness.”

“So, white men tend to hire white men,” he said.

“I don’t understand why we fail to be seriously entertaining the idea of quotas,” he said.

“One of the things we do know about diversity of all sorts is that organisations become more productive, they become more innovative. Diversity breaks groupthink.

“Without having serious national conversation about quotas, I think we’re going to be missing out on something.”

Liveris said he was concerned that the proportion of women holding the top jobs did not really increase as you worked down the list.

“This is an issue for companies over all, no matter who they are,” he said. “If they’re not doing this their shareholders need to ask serious questions.”