Jeepers, this business of ranking Australia’s top female directors is a much bigger exercise than previously thought. A further deluge of emails has produced another very impressive 10 new names who I’ve attempted to rank.

The real challenge will now be to rank the overall top 30, which we’ll do next week.

One notable thing about the list of female directors is that many of them are still in their 40s. This is very rare among the blokes:

1. Jillian Broadbent: former Bankers Trust executive who now sits on the Reserve Bank, Woodside Petroleum, Coca-Cola Amatil and SBS boards.

2. Belinda Hutchinson: former Citibank and Macquarie Bank executive who currently sits on the boards of Telstra, QBE, Crane Group and Energy Australia.

3. Irene Lee: former CEO of fund manager Sealcorp, executive director of Citibank and head of corporate finance at Commonwealth Bank who now serves on the boards of QBE, Ten and Beyond International.

4. Carolyn Kay: lawyer and Morgan Stanley executive with experience in New York and London who now sits on the Commonwealth Bank, Symbion and Brambles boards at the age of 44.

5. Dr Nora Scheinkestel: a banker with experience at CRA, Macquarie Bank, Chase AMP and Deutsche Bank, she’s now an associate professor at the Melbourne Business School who sits on the AMP and Orica boards after earlier stints with Mayne, Newcrest and Paperlinx.

6. Barbara Ward: former Paul Keating adviser and CEO of AWAS who nows sits on the boards of Multiplex, Commonwealth Bank, Lion Nathan and Allco Finance Group.

7. Carolyn Hewson: former investment banker now sitting on the Westpac and AGL boards. Quit AMP out of frustration in 2002 before things really went pear-shaped and also had an earlier stint with CSR.

8. Dominique Fisher: the former wife NSW Treasurer Peter Collins and current wife of former Victorian Treasurer Alan Stockdale chairs Circadian Technologies and is a director of Pacific Brands, plus also chairs three private tech companies and has Federal government gigs at the Australia Council and the Dance Board.

9. Elana Rubin: whilst primarily sponsored by the industry super funds and Victorian Labor government, Elana chairs Victrack and the Victorian WorkCover Authority and is a director of the TAC.

10. Anna Booth: the former textiles union boss was given a gig on the Commonwealth Bank board by Paul Keating and now chairs Slater & Gordon. Also previously a director of SOCOG and the NRMA.