In September 2013, Singapore hosted several gatherings where women leaders from around the world argued that boards should move beyond the old boys’ network. Their message was that companies should write gender equality into their goals and strategies, and then act on them.
The starting point was low. In 2011, only 7.3 per cent of boards in Singapore had a female director, and the figure for 2010 had been 6.9 per cent. The mood at the time was that more people were discussing the issue, even if the numbers had barely moved.
Why quotas were not the favoured route
Speakers at the events largely avoided legislated quotas. Linda Tsao Yang, a former United States ambassador who chairs the Asian Corporate Governance Association, said she feared quotas could breed nepotism or tokenism. She preferred what she called internally generated pressure. Companies would set their own strategies with specific timetables and track progress honestly, so that they owned the agenda rather than having it dictated to them.
Karen Bell, a senior Deutsche Bank executive for Asia-Pacific, added a caveat. Targets mean little, she said, unless there are consequences for meeting or missing them, whether incentives or penalties.
Sponsors, talent and the role of women at the top
There was broad agreement that the agenda needs champions: chief executives, and women who have already broken the glass ceiling. Yang said those near or at the top carry a particular responsibility to help capable women rise.
Susan Stautberg, co-founder and co-chair of Women Corporate Directors, drew a distinction between mentors and sponsors. A mentor talks to you about your career, she said, while a sponsor talks about you and promotes you. Her advice to boards was to appoint their best talent rather than their best friends.
Help can come from men as well. Former banker Yvonne Chia credited the founder of RHB Group with backing her to become the first woman to head a Malaysian bank.
A push for the corporate governance code
Ang Fung Fung, a KPMG partner and Singapore co-chair of Women Corporate Directors, wanted the Code of Corporate Governance to be more explicit. In her view the board diversity requirement was too faint, and companies should be asked to explain their diversity strategy. The code had been revised only shortly before, but she said it was not too late and that conversations with government were under way.
Political voices were part of the pressure. Ministers including K. Shanmugam and Grace Fu had called for more female top talent in corporate Singapore. Stautberg noted that politicians advocating a cause can be enough to make companies take notice.
Where the numbers stand now
The Council for Board Diversity began systematically tracking board composition in 2013. On 8 May 2026 it released data as at December 2025. Women hold 25.8% of board seats among the top 100 Singapore Exchange primary-listed companies, up 0.7 percentage points on the previous year and more than 18 percentage points since 2013.
The council had set a “25% by 2025” target in 2019. The next stage is 30% women on boards by 2030.
Across all SGX-listed companies, the interim reading for the first half of 2025 put women’s share of directorships at 17.6%. The public sector has moved faster. Women held 36.1% of seats across Singapore’s 65 statutory boards, and 35.6% in Institutions of a Public Character, according to figures reported by Bloomberg.
The Business Times reported that the share of female board chairs at the top 100 listed companies edged up to 10 per cent in 2025. The council says it is now looking beyond gender to other aspects of diversity, including skills, experience and age. It also released a study with Egon Zehnder on inclusion and board culture.
The 2013 argument for company-owned targets, visible sponsorship and public encouragement over compulsion is the model the council has followed. The 2019 target and the 2030 goal are voluntary, with progress published every year.