New statistics on gender balance in business have been released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show a gender breakdown of chairpersons, boards of directors, CEOs and senior executive teams.

The figures show that only one in nine CEOs of large enterprises in Ireland appointed in the past 12 months were women while large companies’ boards are on average made up of 20% women and 80% men.

Just 28% of senior executives in large enterprises were women.

"Women occupied 12% of CEO positions, 7% of board chairpersons, 20% of board membership and 28% of senior executive positions," said the CSO's Gerard Doolan.

One-third of senior executive appointments within the last 12 months were women and two-thirds were men. For appointments to boards of directors within the last year, 30% were women.

"For appointments made five or more years ago, 25% of senior executive appointments and 17% of appointments to boards were women."

Fewer woman are found in the construction and industry sectors, while more women are found i foreign-owned companies than in Irish-owned ones.

"The construction sector had the lowest representation of women in senior executive jobs, at 9%. The services sector had the highest female representation in senior posts, at 31%. In industry, 26% of senior executives were women," said Mr Doolan.

"Construction also had the lowest representation of women on boards of directors, at 9%. In services, women accounted for 22% of board membership and in industry 17%.

"There was higher representation of women in foreign-owned than in Irish-owned enterprises. In foreign-owned enterprises, the senior executive team was 31% female and the board 21% female. In Irish-owned enterprises, 26% of the senior executive team and 19% of the board were women."

Read the 'Gender Balance in Business Survey' in full here: