Women CEOs in New Zealand earned more than twice as much as their male counterparts on average, a new report says.

In the latest MSCI ACWI report, researchers found that female chief executives in the Pacific Island nation earned an average of US$5.9 million. This is noticeably higher compared to the $2.6 million pay of male CEOs on average.

New Zealand also had the strongest board representation, with more than 40% of all available chief executive roles in the country occupied by women.

By contrast, only 6.5% of women in other countries held the CEO position in their companies. This is a slight increase compared to the 5.8% recorded in 2022.

Meanwhile, 19% of all chief financial officer roles are held by women.

Also known as the All Country World Index, the ACWI is a stock index used to keep track of global equity-market performance. Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) collects data from nearly 3,000 companies in 23 developed countries, as well as 24 emerging markets.

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Not enough women CEOs globally

Being a developed country does not mean that they are already ahead in female representation, according to the new MSCI ACWI report. Many had less than 5% of women chief executives, including Germany (3.6%), the Netherlands (3.2%), and Switzerland (2.2%).

Female CEOs in Switzerland even earned more than four times less compared to their male counterparts.

Asia also had some of the weakest board representation in the world, with less than 5% of women CEOs. Countries like Hong Kong (4.8%), South Korea (3.2%), and Japan (1.1%) had the largest discrepancy in the number of female chief executives.

Interestingly, women CEOs in South Korea earned more than their male counterparts.

Companies in the healthcare and consumer discretionary sectors (fast food chains, apparel businesses, etc) had the most female chief executives (10.4%). These organisations also had women occupying nearly 20% of CFO roles, according to the report.

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More women in board seats

The MSCI ACWI also showed a slight increase in the number of women holding board positions. In 2023, 25.8% of women occupied seats in their companies’ boards compared to 24.5% the previous year.

The real estate firms saw the biggest change in the number of fully male boards, dropping from 14% in 2022 to 8.6% in 2023. Healthcare companies also had a significant drop from 6.8% in 2022 to 5.4% in 2023.

Of the 11 sectors tracked in the report, the IT sector (15%) had the largest percentage of companies with fully male boards. It even experienced a 0.8% increase in 2023. Meanwhile, 14% of firms in the materials industry had all-male boards.

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Changing cultures through diversity and inclusion

Despite the improvement in the number of women occupying board seats, some experts still want to see stronger female representation.

Chitra Hepburn, head of ESG and climate for MSCI Asia-Pacific, said there is a significant gap between what happens to women once they become part of the board. And even when women do make it to the board, the average time they spend on the seat is only about three and a half years, she pointed out.

Hepburn believes more work is needed to create long-lasting change in the way women leaders are seen in the business world.

"It's one thing to tick the box and bring them in on the board, but it's a whole different thing,” Hepburn said. “If you want to change the culture of the board of your company and make inclusion more of the issue rather than just diversity for diversity's sake.”