The Australian Institute of Company Directors has set a new gender diversity target and asked corporate boards to ensure 30% of their directors are women by the end of 2018.

The AICD, led by CEO and Managing Director John Brogden, hopes setting a clear 30% target for Australia’s companies will lead to a marked increase in diversity on boards.

Currently, the number of female board directors leading ASX200 companies sits at around 20%, making the 30% target a big jump. These numbers are slightly better at the higher end of the ASX200 than they are overall, however. The ASX20, 50 and 100 each have around 23% female board directors.

Increasing women’s representation in directorships by 10% in three years is certainly achievable, particularly considering that the figures have jumped from 8.3% to 20% in just five years.

The number of female chairs leading ASX200 boards has also jumped in the last five years – from 2.5% in 2010 to 6% in 2015 – but remains worryingly low.

When it comes to general board positions, the figures are similar. In the ASX300, 19.9% of all board seats are currently held by women.

Perhaps the most concerning is that a number of boards still have no female board members whatsoever, let alone board directors or chairs. In the ASX300, 81 boards still haven’t found a single woman to appoint. In the ASX100, there are four boards with no women.

But the AICD and Brogden are determined to speed up the progress, and today’s target announcement is one of a series of moves designed to boost the representation of women on boards.

“Our previous initiatives to increase diversity have contributed to a steady increase in female directors on ASX200 boards, from 8.3% in 2009 to 20% today. We believe more needs to be done to further increase that number, and we are confident our new policy will help achieve that, at a faster pace,” Brogden said.

Brogden also made clear the 30% target is not exclusive to the top-listed companies, but all of the AICD’s broad membership base.

“The 30 per cent target will apply to all company structures, as the AICD has a broad membership of over 35,000 that extends well beyond the top listed companies to small ASX entities, private business and not-for-profit organisations,” he said.

The AICD has called on all of its members to formally adopt the target and commit to reporting on their progress towards it regularly.

The AICD believes it is more sensible to institute targets in this manner, by encouraging companies to set their own targets and report on them to the AICD, rather than having government mandate targets for the corporate sector.

“We believe that the director community setting its own 30% target is a better approach than a mandated quota imposed by government. We have always said that companies should set their own measurable targets for gender diversity and to facilitate their efforts we are now nominating a standard that we consider appropriate,” he said.

“There is an undeniable case for gender diversity on boards. It is not only the right thing to do but the smart thing to do, because it means better business performance,” Brogden concluded.

While the representation of women on boards remains low, the changes that have occurred over the last five years are encouraging and targets such as this one will ensure the numbers continue to go up.

As Angela Priestley wrote last week, there are now some boards that are bucking the trend entirely: Medibank Private boasts 62.5% and Mirvac Group, Spark Insurance and SMS Management each have a 50/50 gender split. Let’s hope with the help of targets and industry leadership, other companies will soon follow suit.

The announcement has so far received a positive response from the business community and social media.

This article was originally published on Women’s Agenda 9th April. Read the original article here.