Claire Braund, Executive Director of Women on Boards, said a 50% target was always going to be hard to achieve.
"The new target of 40 per cent target female employees (and we presume 40% male and 20% either and / or any other genders) still allows for excellent diversity and gender balance, while being more achievable. WOB has been a strong advocate for many years for gender targets of 40:40:20 to ensure skills and experience gaps can also be appropriately filled - either in management or at board level."
Claire said she suspected it will be difficult for BHP to achieve its target as according to the latest (2020) Workplace Gender Equality Agency data, only one of the BHP Australian divisions has more than 30% women:
In other BHP news, two female NEDs will step down from the board at the 11 November AGM. Susan Kilsby and Anita Frew will both step down due to other board commitments. Three women and six men will remain on the large 12 person board.