Female representations on Irish boards is up, but more progress is needed in the key decision-making roles of CFO, CEO and Chair, writes Meliosa O’Caoimh

Female representation on the boards of Irish companies is improving, but progress is slower at the senior leadership level – particularly in key decision roles, such as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive and Chair. 

This is according to the new annual report of the Balance for Better Business Review Group, which shows a 21 percent rise in female representation in ISEQ-listed companies over a five-year period.

Now in its sixth year, the report also puts the current proportion of women on the boards of ISEQ 20 companies at 39 percent, exceeding the 33 percent target set for 2023. 

The percentage of women on boards across other listed companies stands at 28 percent, also above the 25 percent target set for 2023. Private companies with Irish ownership have remained steady at 22 percent since 2021, up from 17 percent in 2019.

Seeing a consistent year-on-year increase in gender balance on boards marks important progress, and the companies driving this change should be proud. Companies with more diverse boards are shown to outperform those with less diversity. 

Progress at the senior executive level is also critical to both business success and safeguarding the board-level talent pipeline, however.

Achieving gender balance in senior roles across all areas of decision-making is dependent on robust and business-led strategies, including succession planning, career pathways and the monitoring of progress through targets and data.

Balance for Better Business is an independent business-led review group established by the Government. Its latest annual report included the results of research commissioned by the 30% Club with the support of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. 

Two roundtable discussions on both the financial services sector and executive search were held as part of its research.

The financial services roundtable brought together representatives from industry to focus on the challenge of achieving greater gender balance in roles with profit and loss or revenue-generating responsibilities.  

Research in Ireland revealed that challenges emerge as early as a professional’s very first career choices and can have an impact across an organisation’s career processes and work design.

Specific actions highlighted in this research include:

• extending graduate recruitment gender targets to include graduate first-role placements;
• mandated job rotation as part of early career development; and 
• replacing outdated stereotypical business development approaches with initiatives that are more appropriate to a modern workforce and gender-balanced customer base.  

The research also highlighted the value of tracking targets and gender progress across each business area, rather than simply focusing on the company average, to demonstrate where action can be taken. 

The executive search roundtable, hosted in partnership with Ibec, focused on the current processes for Chair and board appointments as well as C-suite appointments at the highest level. 

Here, it was found that large private companies are more likely to have succession plans in place, while smaller organisations are less likely to benefit from existing succession plans. 

Key recommended actions for boards and C-suites included: 

• adopting the 30% Club/Ibec Resourcing Code as the standard for nomination committees covering board and executive leader appointments; 
• advocating for succession planning in all roles across all boards; and 
• the adoption of ‘pathway to board’ type career resources. 

Meliosa O’Caoimh is Chair of 30% Club Ireland