The number of women on federal government boards has dropped slightly over the past year, with only 39.1 per cent of positions held by women.
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This is down from 39.7 per cent in 2014 and 41.7 per cent in 2013.
But the result is still very close to the government's own target, to have at least 40 per cent of Australian government board positions held by women.
The drop in women on government boards comes as the overall number of government positions has dropped, with 1443 positions shed since 2013 as part of the Coalition's "smaller government agenda".
Of the new board appointments in 2014-15, 38.4 per cent went to women, while 30.1 per cent of all chair and deputy chair roles were filled by women, another slight drop on last year's figures.
Minister for Women Michaelia Cash said the findings of the gender balance report strengthened her resolve to "step up" work to boost diversity within government.
"We know organisations perform better with a more diverse leadership team," Senator Cash said.
"The evidence is irrefutable in relation to the financial benefits that gender diversity can bring."
Hosting a roundtable with business leaders in Melbourne on Thursday, Senator Cash announced $100,000 to fund scholarships through Chief Executive Women to promote women in science, technology, engineering and maths.
Senator Cash also announced that Chief Executive Women president Diane Smith-Gander business leaders Jennifer Westacott and Ann Sherry, media consultant Anne Fulwood and refugee advocate Paris Aristotle would be brought on board to help promote the government's BoardLinks service.
Boardlinks is a database that seeks to increase the number of women on government boards.
The gender balance report, released on Thursday, also finds that best performing portfolio areas in terms of government board appointments for women were human services (66.7 per cent), social services (53.1 per cent) and immigration (50 per cent).
The poorest were veterans' affairs (23.7 per cent) and employment (24.1 per cent).
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has recently come under fire for letting board appointments slip in the communications portfolio under his ministership. Communications met the government target with 40 per cent of board positions going to women.
