More women take seats on the board in Singapore’s top 100 SGX-listed companies

SINGAPORE: Women now hold over a quarter (25.1%) of board seats at Singapore’s top 100 Singapore Exchange (SGX)-listed companies, according to the Council for Board Diversity (CBD). This is more than three times the number of women on the board 10 years ago and higher than the global average (23.3%), as reported by Singapore Business Review.

In 2024, 18.1% of board members in 615 companies listed on the SGX were women, more than double from just 8.1% ten years ago, while women held 34.3% of board seats across the government’s 64 statutory boards, up 1.6 percentage points from 2023.

Over the past six years, statutory boards have seen nearly a 50% rise in women directors, increasing from 23.3% at the end of 2018. This growth followed CBD’s public-private-people strategy, supported by deepened board appointment guidance from the Public Service Division (PSD).

Last year, women held 31.8% of board seats among the largest 100 institutions of a public character (IPC) after a 1.7 percentage point rise in 2023, thanks to new guidance from the Code of Governance for Charities and IPCs. Overall, all IPCs averaged 34.3%.

Directorship data over five years revealed that boards tend to be more gender-diverse in companies where women serve on nominating committees, particularly in smaller listed firms. /TISG 

Read also: Singapore women entrepreneurs find global success through Amazon Global Selling