Just 14% of the directors serving on the boards of the 100 most valuable Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges are female, a report from a regional corporate governance body said, reports the South China Morning Post.
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) had a lower rate of female directors than their private sector counterparts, and nearly one in five companies had an all-male board, said the investor-backed Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), whose research was based on companies’ annual and sustainability reports, websites, and stock exchange announcements as of end-March.
“We call on regulators and investors to actively encourage the appointment of women to issuers’ nomination committees as a means of addressing the diversity deficit at listed companies in the region,” ACGA said in a statement on Monday. “Behind the headline figure of 14% female representation on boards among China’s largest issuers there is some cause to be cautiously optimistic,” the report said.
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