Australian footwear business Accent Group has lifted its overall female representation, now at two-thirds (66 per cent) of the company’s total employment of 7,908, according to its latest Sustainability Paper for 2024.
This is a lift of one percentage point from FY23 when the disparity between male and female employees was 65 per cent women and 35 per cent men.
Accent Group manages over 30 brands through owned vertical and licensing, including the likes of Hoka, Skechers and Platypus.
The overall lift was mostly driven by staffing shifts outside of senior-level management and the board, with female managers hitting 72 per cent and other female staff at 66 per cent - both up two per cent and one per cent respectively.
Accent Group also achieved its key FY24 target of a 30 per cent female representation on the board. The group’s board now has two female non-executive directors out of a total of six, which includes the appointment of Anne Loveridge AM last year.
Despite this, Accent Group failed to increase female representation across senior management, with women now making up just 49 per cent of the group’s senior management sector.
In FY23, female senior managers made up 54 per cent of this sector, which was 97 employees overall. In FY24, overall senior managers was 115, with the percentage showing that female representation lifted by around two senior management employees
“We believe that our workforce should reflect the diverse nature of our community. Our commitment is reinforced through our Diversity and Inclusion Policy and Code of Conduct, which are embedded throughout the organisation,” the company wrote in the report. “We strive to create an environment of mutual respect, dignity, and openness, appreciating the richness of different cultures and perspectives.
“At Accent Group, diversity encompasses a range of dimensions, including but not limited to age, gender, race, national or ethnic origin, learning and physical ability, disabilities, religion, language, family/marital status, and sexual orientation.”
When compared to the latest 2023 scorecard by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Accent Group’s board representation is in line with the national level, where 34 per cent of women make up board roles.
However, its management levels - both senior management and other management, are still above the national average. Around 42 per cent of management roles are women, while 52 per cent of non-management roles are women.