Prime Highlights
- Women accounted for 10% of board chairs at Singapore’s Top 100 SGX-listed firms in 2025.
- Female board representation at these companies rose to 25.8%, beating the 2025 target.
Key Facts
- The Council for Board Diversity tracks gender diversity across more than 1,300 organisations.
- Women’s board representation at Top 100 SGX firms is projected to cross 30% by 2030.
Background
Women continued to gain ground in board leadership roles at Singapore’s largest listed companies in 2025, with female board chairs rising to 10% at the Top 100 SGX primary-listed firms from 8% a year earlier, according to the Council for Board Diversity (CBD).
The council said the increase shows that more women are taking key leadership roles on boards, including positions responsible for setting agendas, guiding governance and overseeing major decisions.
Its latest annual report reviewed more than 1,300 organisations, including Singapore-listed companies, statutory boards and Institutions of a Public Character.
Data up to December 2025 showed that women also increased their share of overall board seats across sectors. At the Top 100 SGX primary-listed firms, women held 25.8% of board positions, up 0.7 percentage points from 2024.
The figure moved above the council’s target of 25% female board representation by the end of 2025. It also marked an increase of more than 18 percentage points compared with 2013 levels.
The report said more than 1,200 people received their first board appointments at SGX-listed companies between 2021 and 2025, including 181 in 2025. This trend helped widen the talent pool for future directors.
During the same period, women made up 19.1% of unique directors across all SGX-listed firms and 25.6% among the Top 100 companies.
Average board appointments per woman director remained at 1.2, suggesting that more women entered boards through fresh appointments rather than repeated roles for the same individuals.
CBD co-chair Gan Seow Kee said a broader and more diverse group of board-ready candidates would help organisations manage complex future challenges.
The report added that women’s board representation at the Top 100 SGX-listed firms is expected to exceed 30% by 2030.
