Egypt’s boards of directors get an “F” on gender parity for 2019: Egyptian companies failed to make headway on gender parity on corporate boards in 2019, with the situation in public sector firms actually regressing to become more male-dominated, the Women on Boards Observatory’s (WoB) 2019 report (pdf) finds. Women filled only 10% of the 5.7k board positions of the surveyed companies.

Listed companies tread water: EGX-listed companies failed to diversify their boards in 2019 and actually saw the percentage of women board members fall marginally to 10.1% from 10.2%.

More than one out of every two boards of EGX-listed companies don’t have a woman member — or 53.6% of them, to be precise.

Public enterprises lead the way in how not to meet diversity targets: State-owned companies saw significant regression in board diversity during 2019 despite the government committing to achieving 30% representation by 2030. The number of firms with 30%+ women board members halved to just 5% while a stunning 73% have zero female representation. Across the sector, just 6.1% of board members are women.

The banking sector provides a ray of light: Banks stand out as the only sector to have made real gender parity gains last year, increasing the percentage of women board members to 14.8% from 11.4%. A quarter of banks remain all-male, down from 41.2% in 2018, and the number of boards with 30%+ women members trebled to 9%.

Companies across the economy are going to need to shape up if the government’s 2030 targets are going to be met: The report estimates that 113 women now need to be appointed to boards every year to achieve the target of 30% representation by 2030.