Women Senior Management Appointments: CEW & Dun & Bradstreet Data: May 2012

A survey of Australian CEOs from Dun and Bradstreet and Chief Executive Women (CEW).

The data was collated from Dun and Bradstreet’s monthly Business Expectation Survey of 1,200 chief executive officers over a three-month period Q3-Q4 2011.The data reflects CEO’s answers to two key questions about women senior management
appointments.

The survey showed that:

• over 75 per cent of small firms did not intend to appoint a female to a senior management position in the next three months. Over 65 per cent of small to medium size firms were not mandating that female candidates be short listed for senior management roles.

• 22% of corporates said that in the last three months or next three months they have appointed or intend to appoint at least one female to a senior management position. This proportion is approximately the same across all industry groups.

• the industries were divided by their CEO’s plans to appoint women into senior management in the next six months. Companies in wholesale and retail (25% & 26%) sectors showed a significantly better commitment to appointing women into senior management than those in manufacturing (20% durables & 22% non-durables).