UPFRONT Where women leaders flourish

Women heading for top jobs fare better in the telecommunications, finance, banking or insurance industries but find the going tough in real estate, the energy sector, auto industry or hotel/restaurant trade.
That’s according to recent survey by the Australian Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace agency which found that while women make up 45 percent of the Aussie workforce, they can be found in only 10 percent of top management roles and those are weighted toward particular industry sectors.
Only four of the top 200 public companies have women CEOs and only two have women chairing the board. Forty-two percent of companies surveyed have no women in executive roles.
However, the overall picture has improved slightly since last year. At executive management level women now hold 10.2 percent of the jobs compared to 8.8 percent in 2003 and have moved from holding 8.4 percent to 8.6 percent of directorships.