Singapore Firms Lag in Women Chairs & Board Diversity Progress

• Women chair only two of thirty leading Singapore companies
• Board diversity improving slowly but leadership gaps still remain
• Long chairperson tenures limit opportunities for women leaders

Singapore’s top companies are still struggling to achieve gender diversity at the highest leadership level, with only two women chairing firms in the Straits Times Index (STI). This highlights a wider global issue, though Singapore’s numbers remain lower than several developed markets.

Currently, women make up just about 7% of chairpersons among the 30 STI-listed companies. This is below countries like Australia and the UK, where female representation in similar roles is higher, though still not equal. Experts note that globally, Analysts observe that worldwide, women only occupy approximately 8-10 percent of the board chair positions, indicating that the challenge is widespread.

Koh Choon Fah of Frasers Centrepoint Trust and Teo Swee Lian of CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust are the two women who head STI firms. Both are very much experienced in their profession, Teo has a career span of over 27 years serving in the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Industry experts say Singapore’s slower progress is due to historical and structural factors. There are numerous family-owned or founder-led companies, and leadership within such companies is frequently transferred to the male relatives. This limits opportunities for women to reach top positions.

However, there has been improvement at the board level. Women now hold 25% of directorships in top Singapore-listed firms, up from under 10% in 2015. The Singapore Exchange mandated companies to reveal their board diversity regulations which led to this development in 2022.

The tenure of chairpersons is another important issue. Most leaders serve long tenures in their posts, and this is usually as a result of good ownership or family ownership. Experts reckon that this minimizes opportunities of emerging and different leadership including that of women.

To bridge the gap, organisations are currently giving more consideration to the enhanced succession planning. An early identification and preparation of women leaders, giving them the experience of being on boards and encouraging inclusive leadership behaviors will play a vital role in increasing gender diversity in corporate leadership.