Women on Boards

SMH 10/03/2011

The largest operator of private hospitals in the country boasts a workforce comprising more than 84 per cent females.
Ramsay Health Care also boasts an extensive portfolio of medical services targeted at women, including a new private maternity unit which opened just last month.

Its closest competitor, Primary Health Care, provides obstetric, gynaecological and mammography services to tens of thousands of women every year.

But women do not get a look-in when it comes to making the big decisions. The boards of Australia's two largest private healthcare companies are all-male domains.

Along with the usual mineral, energy, transportation and financial companies in the Australian stock exchange's Top 200 list, healthcare providers, media houses and kitchen appliance manufacturers are among the big corporates without a single women on the board.

Sunbeam, which is owned by GUD Holdings, joins other house- hold names such as Elders, Cabcharge, Flight Centre and the property arm of Bunnings Warehouse, on the list of boards bereft of female directors.

According to a Women on Boards analysis, 10 per cent of directorships in ASX200 companies are held by women, while 87 of those companies still do not have any women on their board.

As the centenary of International Women's Day was observed around the world yesterday, the pay TV company Austar beckoned women to watch ''an inspiring documentary commemorating the achievements of Australian women who have helped shape the nation''. None are shaping the station's own direction from its boardroom; nor from the boardroom of its free-to-air competitor, Southern Cross.