Southeast Asia sees an increase in the percentage of board seats held by women, from 17.1% in 2021 to 19.9% in 2023, marking a 2.8 percentage point uptick, according to a recent Deloitte Global study.
The eighth edition of Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective, which analysed more than 18,000 companies in 50 countries and geographies, exploring representation of women in the boardroom, as well as insights on the political, social, and legislative trends behind these numbers, reveals that Malaysia takes the lead in terms of the percentage of board seats held by women (28.5%), driven by initiatives such as the “one woman on board” quota for listed companies.
Although listed companies in Malaysia have yet to meet the target of 30% women directors set in the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance, there has been commendable headway in women’s representation in Malaysian boardrooms.
Singapore’s 20.8% of board seats held by women trails the global average of 23.3%, although it surpasses the Asia Pacific average of 14.8% and Southeast Asia average of 19.9%. This is an increase of 3.2 percentage points, which is higher than the overall increase in Southeast Asia.
This finding also runs in parallel to the 2.3 percentage point increase in the number of board chairs in Singapore who are women – the city-state’s 8.3% of board chairs who are women is almost on par with the global average of 8.4% and exceeds the Asia Pacific average of 6.9%.
The Philippines is tied with Singapore with 8.3% of female board chairs, although the former has marked a higher percentage point growth of 3.7 from 2021 as compared to Singapore’s 2.3.
Although percentage growth has been reflected across all the key metrics, there are exceptions. The percentage of women as board chairs in Malaysia (6.2%) and the percentage of female CEOs in Singapore (11.9%) in 2023 are a decrease of 0.3 and 1.2 percentage points respectively from 2021. This serves as a reminder that more needs to be done to advance gender parity in leadership.
“We are seeing heartening progress towards workplace diversity in Southeast Asia. The percentage increases in terms of representation of women on boards and women anchoring senior leadership positions – whether as Chairs or CEOs – is commendable," says SEAH Gek Choo, Boardroom Program Leader, Deloitte Southeast Asia and Singapore.
"While many countries in the region do not have legal requirements or quotas for the number of women on boards, this upward trend indicates a growing recognition of the positive impact of gender diversity in the boardroom, which is especially important as organisations respond to new and evolving business challenges."
Gek Choo looks forward to seeing such positive change snowball and accelerate in the region, noting that the growing number of women leaders in Singapore's boardrooms is a testament to the commitment and efforts toward promoting gender parity and diversity in leadership and the workforce.
"While this progress is inspiring, the drop in percentage of women Chief Executive Officers reminds us that the journey toward transformation is hard-fought and ongoing."
Gek Choo points out that while the Code of Corporate Governance and other regulatory efforts in Singapore play a role in enabling companies to embrace greater diversity on boards, for organisations to achieve parity, a shift towards prioritising leadership diversity both within and outside the boardroom needs to take place,” continued Gek Choo.
| Geography | Percentage of board seats held by women (%) in 2023 | Percentage of female board chairs (%) in 2023 | Percentage of female Chief Executive Officers (%) in 2023 |
| Indonesia | 9.7 (from 8.3%) | 6.9 (from 5.2%) | 3.9 (from 3.1%) |
| Malaysia | 28.5 (from 24.0%) | 6.2 (from 6.5%) | 4.9 (from 3.7%) |
| Philippines | 21.7 (from 17.7%) | 8.3 (from 4.6%) | 12.0 (from 6.8%) |
| Singapore | 20.8 (from 17.6%) | 8.3 (from 6.0%) | 11.9 (from 13.1%) |
| Thailand | 19.0 (from 17.8%) | 7.2 (from 4.0%) | 11.9 (from 11.6%) |
No clear path
While the number of women serving on boards globally and in Southeast Asia has been growing, Deloitte says gender parity is unlikely to be achieved before 2038, adding that there is no clear path to gender parity in the board chair or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) role.
For parity to become a reality, a wide range of stakeholders would need to devote greater focus and action to help corporate boards more accurately reflect the societies in which they operate, and boards themselves would need to continue to take action and ask the right questions.
