Women remained on the sidelines of boardrooms in power and utilities companies worldwide, with new research indicating that, at the current pace of development, it will take 72 years for women to obtain a 40% representation on boards within the sector.

Assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services firm EY’s ‘Women in Power and Utilities Index 2016’ showed a “painfully slow” 1% growth over a three-year period of the number of women in board positions.

“Gender parity progress is slow in the global power and utilities sector,” EY Africa energy leader Claire Lawrie said in a statement on Monday, adding that, with 345 women, or 16%, of 2 149 positions currently in board roles, it would require the appointment of another 515 women to reach 40% representation.

Within the surveyed global top 200 (by revenue) power and utility companies, only 25 women were in executive board positions, representing just 5% – a growth to 10% would require another 24 women to be appointed in these roles.

The index, the research for which was undertaken in December, showed women holding 19% of nonexecutive board positions and 14% of senior management team roles, the latter of which was the only statistic to increase each year, rising 12% in 2014 and 13% in 2015.

“At the current rate of progress, the advancement of women will not happen anytime soon. Power and utility companies must address the things that are frustrating the achievement of better diversity in boardrooms – especially as our research shows that the most gender-diverse companies outperformed the least gender-diverse companies by 14.8% on return on equity,” Lawrie noted.

The report showed that the surveyed companies in the Americas had the highest percentage of female board executives, with Latin America leading with 9%, while Europe reported a 7% representation.

Female board executives made up 6% of the companies surveyed in Africa and Middle East, with South African State-owned power utility Eskom boasting sixth place and Mozambique’s Electricidade de Moçambique at number 53.

“These regions also top the list for the percentage of women in nonexecutive board roles. Asia-Pacific had the lowest percentage of women board executives at just 3%,” she said.