The long awaited bi-annual census results of women in leadership roles in Australia have been released today by EOWA, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency.  Following a downward trend in almost every category in the 2008 results, the 2010 census results have been eagerly awaited.  The good news is the downward trend appears to have been arrested; the bad news is despite comprising 45% of the Australian labour force, women hold only 8% of key executive management roles, 3% of CEO roles, 8.4% of company director roles and 2.5% of ASX200 Chairs.

A snapshot of the census results shows that the proportion of women holding key leadership roles in Australia is on the up across most leadership categories:

• ASX200 Chairs – up from 2% in 2008 to 2.5% in 2010
• ASX200 CEOs – up from 2% in 2008 to 3% in 2010
• ASX200 executive key management personnel – up from 7% in 2008 to 8% in 2010
• ASX200 Board directors – up from 8.3% in 2008 to 8.4% in 2010
• University Vice Chancellors – down from 21.1% in 2008 to 19.7% in 2010
• Management and professional positions – down from 45.5% in 2008 to 44.6% in 2010

Click here to access a copy of the full census report, and check in tomorrow when I’ll be providing commentary from the report launch today in Sydney.