Women's Board Representation in SGX Firms Crosses 25%

• Women's leadership presence grew steadily, as the percentage of women holding the position of board chair at Top 100 SGX-listed companies rose from 8% in 2024 to 10% in 2025.
• Women had a 25.8% share on boards, overshooting the Council for Board Diversity's 25% target and showing steady progress in all sectors.

Women made up 10% of board chairs at the Top 100 SGX primary-listed companies in 2025, up from 8% a year earlier, according to the Council for Board Diversity (CBD).

The council said the increase reflects a rise in women taking on leadership positions on boards, including roles linked to setting agendas and overseeing governance and decision-making.

The CBD's annual report covers more than 1, 300 organisations, including Singapore-listed companies, statutory boards, and Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs).

Data as of December 2025 showed that the share of board seats held by women continued to increase across sectors.

Besides accounting for 25.8% of board positions at the Top 100 SGX primary-listed firms, women were progressing more than men in terms of the annual % contribution to the total board positions. Their progress in 2025 was by 0.7 pp. more than in 2024, while at the same time, women were more than 18 pp. higher than back in 2013.

This number surpasses the CBD target of 25% female board representation by the end of 2025.

Over the 2021 to 2025 period, more than 1, 200 individuals received their first board appointments at SGX-listed companies, including 181 in 2025, thus expanding the director pool.

According to the latest data, female directors increased their share to 19.1% at SGX-listed companies overall and to 25.6% at the Top 100 firms.

Although female directors gained one more board appointment on average, the change was not reflected in statistics at 1.2, which hints that the increase resulted from a wider cohort of women joining boards rather than the same individuals being appointed repeatedly.