Quarter of Australian companies have no women board members: report

More than 25 percent of Australia' s top 300 companies have no women on their boards, according to a new survey released on Monday.

A study commissioned by Women on Boards has found 81 top companies have no female directors.

Just under a quarter of directors with ASX 100 companies are women, which is a 5 percent improvement compared to 2013.

However gender equality at government-owned organizations has gone in reverse.

"It is clear to us that the message is starting to hit home in a number of important areas in the economy -- in particular superannuation and ASX companies -- but unfortunately not with some governments," Women on Boards Executive Director Claire Braund said in a statement.

Braund also said there were less women on boards related to conservative governments.

She said Women on Boards had been focused on the superannuation sector over the past year in terms of moving women onto boards and was pleased to see gains being made following stagnation in the 2013 index.

Of the 135 Superannuation Trusts measured for this year's index, 254 of the 955 trustees were female (26.6 percent) -- a rise of 5. 7 percent on the 2013 index.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Sydney on Monday, Anne Richards, global chief investment officer at Aberdeen Asset Management, congratulated the Australian superannuation industry on the result.

Richards, rated one of the most influential female executives working in financial services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa by the Financial News in 2014, said the global influence exerted by superannuation trusts meant it was critically important to get the right gender balance of trustees. Endi