After my blog a few weeks ago noting how difficult it is to get into government, I thought I should give credit where it’s due.

Anyone interested in the non-executive director (NED) space would be aware of the discussion about women on boards in the past few years.  The discussion has covered the gamut of topics, from the fact there are not enough women on boards, why this is so, how to improve this situation, that companies with more women on their boards do better, and consequently what a good time it is for women who are seeking board roles.  Plenty of talk, real change is taking longer….

There are lots and lots of very qualified women looking for board roles. I’ve met many of them and everyone I meet tells me that too.  While there aren’t lots of female ex-C-suite executives to fill board vacancies, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that there are many women seeking board positions who are better qualified for a NED role than some existing male NEDs.  As this blog canvasses, there are lots of reasons why it’s hard for women to break through into the network and there are lots of lessons we are learning in the process.  But despite the fact there is both a supposedly strong demand and certainly a plentiful supply, that first board role is still elusive for many women.

Last year, the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Penny Wong, announced the BoardLinks initiative, directly aimed at providing “more opportunities for women to be appointed to their first board, to launch and further their directorship careers” and to meet the Australian Government’s own target of having 40% women on Government boards.  It was very gratifying that someone in a position of influence understood the “first board barrier” and sought to do something about it!!  At this point, BoardLinks has operated to provide a database of appropriately qualified women to Government organisations, which at least makes the organisations aware of potential candidates who are women who might not otherwise be seen through networks or recruiter introductions.  So far so good. However it’s still a passive process from the relevant women’s perspective.  Hopefully there is more to come.

Now the Federal Government has launched a new website called Australian Government Boards which contains information “relating to more than 450 Australian Government boards and bodies across government, including a description of each board and its function, positions and appointments and term expiry dates” (http://www.ausgovboards.gov.au/).  This site provides a single location to make an active search and campaign for a government board much simpler and more transparent.  Anyone can now find out easily what boards there are, who is on the board, where there might be opportunities and when and work out how to make an approach.  This is definitely a step in the right direction and should be applauded by all those who have had the advice “try and get on a government board”!

I do suspect this information might result in a few more coffees for me…..

Coffee count: 160