Women heading for top jobs

The ASB Bank boss is forcing senior management to address the lack of women in senior roles by linking gender diversity to performance pay.

Barbara Chapman, who has been chief executive for a year, said moves made by her organisation's parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), are being mirrored in New Zealand.

Ms Chapman, who was visiting her Northland staff last week, is the only woman running a major New Zealand organisation.

She said more balanced interviewing panels and rewarding senior management for employing women are initiatives ASB bank is taking to ensure greater gender diversity in the company.

"What made a difference in my last role in CBA, was ... we set a target amongst ourselves so we were really clear on the number of women we wanted in senior roles."

She said top-tier bonuses were partly dependent on gender diversity.

Ms Chapman said CBA made it mandatory to have both a man and woman on the panel when employing for senior roles.

"It encouraged women inside the business to put themselves forward," she said. "Also it made the men and the women involved in the interview process look differently at the female candidates and have more serious discussions about who was right and wrong for the job."

According to a gender equality report published last year by the Economic World Forum, New Zealand is the sixth-best country for women to live in, a step back from the position of fifth held in 2010.

Ms Chapman said New Zealand has all the correct anti-discrimination laws in place to ensure equality but says not enough is being done in the work and corporate sector.

"I think all the legislative pieces are in place, there is no doubt that we've got good anti-discrimination law ... I think what we don't have is a real track record of progress."