Where are the women? Lack of gender diversity in Rex’s senior leadership team

Where are the women? Lack of gender diversity in Rex’s senior leadership team
Sofia Geraghty
By Sofia Geraghty


There is no doubt that Rex’s recent move into voluntary administration has drawn a lot of attention to the running of the airline, however, there is one area that hasn’t drawn as much attention as it should: the lack of gender diversity within Rex’s board and senior leadership team.

Not one of Rex’s six board members or ten senior managers are women, based on publicly available information on the airline’s website.

The number of women on the board – zero – was significantly below that of the Australian average. According to Board Direction, female representation on Australian ASX 300 boards continued to succeed the 30 per cent benchmark, with females holding 36 per cent of the roles.

Meanwhile, the AICD Gender Diversity Report showed similar findings, with 35.6 per cent of ASX 300 board seats being held by women and 67 per cent of ASX 300 boards having more than 30 per cent female representation.

Whilst women make up a substantial amount of staff across the company – 37 per cent according to WGEA data – they account for just 4 per cent of people in the upper quartile of staff.

At a Board level there was a lack of gender diversity

Meanwhile, the airline’s gender pay gap stood at 26.8 per cent for total remuneration and the company has no employee gender pay gap policy in place.

According to Rex’s diversity policy – which is publicly available online – the airline says it “believes that it is reverse discrimination to have in place policies that unfairly assist and advance the interests of any particular group.”

“Hence Rex will not subscribe to an affirmative policy to simply fulfil a quota for a minority group,” it adds, before clarifying that it prioritises pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

The policies it references are quotas – a controversial tool that has been used by some companies to ensue gender representation.

How do other airlines compare? 

Whilst both Virgin Australia and Qantas have female CEOs and leadership, both have high pay gaps.

At Qantas, a total of four out of nine board members were women, representing a percentage share of 44 per cent, more than the national average. Six of the 13 senior leaders listed on its website were women.

Still, despite the representation at the top, the latest WGEA data puts the gender pay gap at a lofty 37 per cent. This data was collected before Vanessa Hudson became CEO.

At Virgin Australia, four out of eleven of the executive leadership team are women – making up 36 per cent. Based on the latest WGEA data for 2022-2023, 17 per cent of the board were women. The pay gap was 41.7 per cent at the time the data was collected.

The gender imbalance in pilot and engineering roles was noted as a key driver of the imbalance with these roles historically dominated by men. Both airlines have a substantial amount of staff (85 per cent for Qantas and 77 per cent for Virgin) paid according to their Enterprise Agreement, which standardises pay levels regardless of gender.

For failed airline Bonza, one out of four board members was a woman. The data is not available for the company’s pay gap.

What is the impact of gender diversity at a board level?

It is impossible to say whether Rex would have performed better if it had a more diverse board and the jury is out as to whether a more gender-diverse board impacts a company’s financial performance.

A 2023 report by McKinsey found that, globally, companies with greater diversity on their boards of directors are more likely to outperform financially. Companies in the top quartile for board-gender diversity are 27 percent more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile, its results showed. 

However, a May study by the Australian National University found that the gender of directors appointed to company boards “had no impact on the financial performance of those businesses.”

The authors of the report – Nicholas Bayly, Robert Breunig and Chris Wokker from ANU’s Crawford School of Public Policy –  looked at the relationship between female directors and the financial and share price performance of 1,721 directors at 2,483 firms between 2000 and 2016.

“Taken together, the evidence is very strong the gender of board appointees does not impact firm financial performance,” the research paper concludes.

“We find no evidence in Australia that appointing a female board member has an effect different to appointing a male board member on firm financial performance.”

 

 

 

 

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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