As companies across Asia Pacific seek to improve gender diversity in the boardroom, new research suggests that lasting progress depends less on mandatory quotas than on transparency, investor pressure, governance culture and regular board renewal.
The GCC Board Gender Index 2026, published by Heriot-Watt University and Aurora50, compares female representation on listed company boards across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with five Asian markets at different stages of their governance journeys.
According to the report data, women account for 27.3% of board directors in Malaysia, followed by Hong Kong (21.3%), Singapore (19.3%), India (18.9%) and Indonesia (16.0%). The GCC remains lower, at 7.3% on a comparable director-level basis.
‘Lasting change occurs when policy, market expectations and corporate commitment reinforce one another’
‘The differences are driven by a combination of regulation, market expectations, investor pressure and organisational culture,’ says Katherine Ng, co-founder of Katashe Solutions.
Different policy paths
The report highlights the wide range of approaches that markets have taken to improve board diversity. Malaysia currently leads the group after strengthening its governance framework from a voluntary 30% board diversity target to a mandatory one-woman-per-board requirement.
Hong Kong SAR of China has also moved quickly following the introduction of rules prohibiting all-male boards on companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, while India has progressively strengthened its quota system since first introducing board gender quotas in 2013.
Singapore has avoided mandatory quotas, relying instead on disclosure requirements and voluntary targets backed by the Council for Board Diversity. Indonesia has neither quotas nor formal targets, yet still records higher female board representation than the GCC.
Although markets with quotas generally report higher levels of female representation, regulation alone does not determine long-term outcomes. ‘The evidence suggests that lasting change occurs when policy, market expectations and corporate commitment reinforce one another,’ says Professor Dame Heather McGregor, provost and vice principal at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, and principal investigator for the GCC Board Gender Index 2026.
Pressure needed
Although Australia was not included in the report’s comparative dataset, it is widely regarded as one of the region’s strongest performers, with women holding around 40.3% of board seats.
‘Voluntary targets are more effective when they are supported by a culture that genuinely values diversity’
Australia’s voluntary model operates within a stronger accountability ecosystem, where companies face pressure not only to disclose board diversity but to show progress. ‘Australia has benefited from sustained pressure from institutional investors, governance bodies and transparent reporting, making board diversity an expectation rather than an aspiration,’ says Ng.
According to Mrinalini Venkatachalam, regional director at WEConnect International, ‘culture influences the talent pipeline, but governance and market pressure determine how quickly companies act.’ In Australia, she notes, laggards ‘face reputational and shareholder pressure’.
Culture also helps explain the difference. Elise Tan Yee Ling, founder and CEO of Asia Startup Network, argues that the constraint often sits far upstream of the boardroom. ‘Across much of Asia, women are still socialised from a young age to prioritise family,’ she says. ‘When caregiving responsibilities arise, it is often the woman who steps away from her career. Even with supportive policies, these expectations can slow the pipeline.’
Public discussion around gender equality alongside clearer expectations that women can continue working and progress into leadership can help progress. ‘Voluntary targets are more effective when they are supported by a culture that genuinely values diversity, rather than being viewed as a compliance exercise,’ Tan says.
Beyond compliance
Transparency can also become a powerful governance tool in its own right. Tan says public reporting enables investors, employees and other stakeholders to benchmark companies over time, creating reputational incentives for boards to improve.
‘Transparency creates accountability and helps organisations benchmark themselves against their peers,’ she says. ‘It also signals to employees, investors and potential talent that diversity is a leadership priority. Rather than seeing reporting as a burden, companies should be proud to demonstrate progress towards greater gender equality.’
For voluntary regimes, visibility can give targets more force by making progress easier to track and harder to ignore. ‘What gets measured gets managed,’ says Venkatachalam. ‘A voluntary target backed by transparent disclosure can sometimes be more effective than a quota with limited enforcement.’
Representation versus influence
But a headcount is only part of the equation. The report cautions against equating representation with meaningful participation.
The GCC Board Gender Index 2026 found that India’s quota system, for example, led to uneven results; women have not always been appointed to the most influential board committees.
Influence, not presence, is where the value shows up. Improvements in environmental, social and governance performance became statistically significant only once companies had at least three women directors.
‘The objective should not simply be one seat at the table but creating the conditions for sustained and effective board diversity,’ McGregor says. She adds that India’s progress towards nearly 19% female representation ‘demonstrates the value of intervention, while highlighting the importance of building a broader pipeline of senior female leaders’.
Building the leadership pipeline
Board diversity ultimately depends on deeper workforce change. In Indonesia, where there’s no quota or target for female board representation, women still hold around 16% of listed company board seats. However, the report points to continued underrepresentation in senior leadership roles, reflecting a wider bottleneck in a labour market where women participate in large numbers but remain concentrated in more junior roles.
‘Our GCC findings suggest that long-term improvement depends on strengthening the pipeline of women progressing to executive and board positions, supported by both policy reforms and organisational commitment,’ McGregor says.
