Bangkok--8 Mar--Grant Thornton
Research from the 2011 Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) reveals that women currently hold 20% of senior management positions globally, down from 24% in 2009, and up just 1% from 2004. In its quarterly survey of privately held businesses (PHBs) Grant Thornton also found that the percentage of PHBs that have no women in their senior management has risen to 38% compared to 35% in 2009.
Across the world, Thailand boasts the greatest percentage of women in senior management (45%), followed by Georgia (40%), Russia (36%), Hong Kong and the Philippines (both 35%). The countries with the lowest percentages are India, the United Arab Emirates and Japan where fewer than 10% of senior management positions are held by women.
Achara Boonyahansa, Business Development Director of Grant Thornton Thailand, explains: “Thailand’s working culture provides equal opportunity to both men and women to reach senior management levels. Companies committed to diversifying their leadership mostly ensure that women have equal shots at 'stretch' assignments such as serving on company-wide task forces, being part of a start-up or turnaround operations, and gaining international experience. Top women emphasize their love of their jobs, and the hard work it took to get there. They ask for the challenging assignment. They are totally committed.”
The data revealed that G7 countries lag behind the global average with only 16% of women holding senior roles whilst, regionally, Asia Pacific (excl. Japan) scores highest with 27%. Women have become most successful in increasing their share of senior management roles in Thailand, Hong Kong, Greece, Belgium and Botswana, where the percentage of women in these roles has risen by at least 7% since 2009.
Achara added: “Being single or getting married late could be causes for Thai women being able to climb up corporate ladders. They are more likely to put in extra hours at work. Moreover, for married ones, they own the ability to balance work with their personal lives, with support from extended family to take care of their children. Employers also play supporting role by including work-life programs in organizations such as maternity and childbirth leave, flexible work schedules, job-sharing, part-time work, compressed work weeks, and reduced duties, all of which offer women the flexibility to manage home-work conflicts as best suits them, while maintaining productivity levels. In some cases, guarantees are offered to individuals to safeguard their position or level of seniority and the continuation of their health and other benefits. In addition, companies often offer programs such as satellite workplace, which utilize new technologies to enable employees to work from home for at least some part of their working week.”
Roles for women
Of the companies that employ women in senior managerial positions globally, 22% employ them in financial positions (eg Chief Financial Officer/Finance Director). This is followed by Human Resource Director (20%), Chief Marketing Officer and Sales Director (both 9%).
Globally just 8% of companies with women in senior managerial positions have a female Chief Executive Officer (CEO). However the story is different in Asian economies, Thailand leads the way with 30% of companies employing female CEOs, followed by mainland China (19%), Taiwan (18%) and Vietnam (16%).
Notes to editors
The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) provides insight into the views and expectations of over 11,000 businesses per year across 39 economies. This unique survey draws upon 19 years of trend data for most European participants and nine years for many non-European economies.
Data collectionThe research is carried out primarily by telephone interview lasting approximately 15 minutes with the exception of Japan (postal), Philippines and Armenia (face to face), mainland China and India (mixture of face-to-face and telephone) where cultural differences dictate a tailored approach. Telephone interviews enable Grant Thornton International to conduct the exact number of recommended interviews and to be certain that the most appropriate individuals are interviewed in an organisation which meets the profile criteria.
Data collection is managed by Grant Thornton International's core research partner - Experian Business Strategies. Questionnaires are translated into local languages with each participating country having the option to ask a small number of country specific questions in addition to the core questionnaire. The women in business data consists of responses gathered in Q4 2010 and Q1 2011, resulting a global sample of over 9,000 respondents.
SampleMETHODOLOGY
IBR is a survey of medium to large privately held businesses, researching the opinions of over 11,000 businesses annually. The target respondents are chief executive officers, managing directors, chairmen or other senior executives (title dependent on what is most appropriate for the individual country) from 39 economies primarily across five industries: manufacturing (25 per cent), services (25 per cent), retail (15 per cent) and construction (ten per cent) with the remaining 25 per cent spread across all industries.
Locally, the sample tends to cover the industries mentioned previously, with some countries being able to have local valid data for specific sectors or regions when the sample size is large enough.
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Lakpilai Worasaphya
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