Report shows that leading companies are failing to capitalise on talent of women in the workplace
INSEAD, the leading international business school, today announced the findings of its 2010 Corporate Gender Gap Report, a study Herminia Ibarra, the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Academic Director of INSEAD Gender Diversity, co-authored with the World Economic Forum (WEF). The global report, which surveyed the heads of human resources at 600 companies in 20 countries, found that leading companies are failing to capitalise on the talents of women in the workforce. The Corporate Gender Gap Report is the first study to cover the world’s largest employers and benchmark them against gender equality policies.
The report is co-authored by Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD Professor of Leadership and Learning and Professor of Organisational Behaviour, and Saadia Zahidi, Director and Head of Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme, World Economic Forum. Companies were assessed on the representation of women within their establishments and the use of gender-equality practices such as measurement and target setting, work-life balance policies and mentorship and training. The survey also asked respondents to identify the biggest barriers to women’s leadership and their opinion on the probable effects of the economic downturn on women’s employment in their countries and industries.
"While some companies have made strides to become more gender neutral, there is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done," said Professor Ibarra. "The Corporate Gender Gap Report truly serves as a wake-up call for organisations around the world about how they are leveraging the talent of women and provides tools for leaders to assess performance and implement gender equality policies."
Zahidi added, "While a certain set of companies in Scandinavia, the US and the UK are indeed leaders in integrating women, the idea that most corporations have become gender-balanced or women-friendly is still a myth. With this study, we are giving businesses a one-stop guide on what they need to do to close the corporate gender gap."
The United States (52%), Spain (48%), Canada (46%) and Finland (44%) have the highest percentage of women employees at all levels among the responding companies. India is the country with the lowest percentage of women employees (23%), followed by Japan (24%), Turkey (26%) and Austria (29%).
At the industry level, the findings of the survey confirm that the services sector employs the greatest percentage of women employees. Within this sector, the financial services and insurance (60%), professional services (56%) and media and entertainment (42%) industries employ the greatest percentage of women. The sectors that display the lowest percentage of women in the 20 economies are automotive (18%), mining (18%) and agriculture (21%).
Female employees tend to be concentrated in entry or middle level positions and remain scarce in senior management or board positions in most countries and industries. A major exception to this trend is Norway, where the percentage of women among boards of directors is above 40 percent for the majority of respondents. This is due to a government regulation that mandates a minimum of 40 percent of each gender on the boards of public companies.
The average for women holding the CEO-level position was a little less than five percent among the 600 companies surveyed. Finland (13%), Norway (12%), Turkey (12%), Italy (11%) and Brazil (11%) have the highest percentage of women CEOs in this sample.
Although wage gaps between women and men are a universally recognised problem, 72 percent of the companies surveyed do not attempt to track salary gaps at all. However, a more positive revelation is that almost 40 percent of the companies surveyed claim to be setting specified targets, quotas or other affirmative policies to improve women’s participation in their structures. With the exception of Mexico and Brazil, the majority of companies in most countries claim to offer longer-term leave or career breaks for parents or care-givers.
The opinion-based portion of the survey gives insight into the perceived barriers to leadership and the effects of the economic crisis. The biggest barriers to women’s access to leadership positions identified by the respondents are ‘general norms and cultural practices in your country,’ ‘masculine or patriarchal corporate culture’ and ‘lack of role models.’ The least important barriers are identified as ‘lack of adequate parental leave and benefits’ and ‘inadequate labour laws and regulations in your country.’
More than 30 percent of respondents in France, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom believe the downturn would be more harmful for women’s jobs in their country. Among the industries, 10 percent of the respondents in automotive, engineering & construction and logistics & transport feel the downturn may be more negative for women in their industries than for men.
The countries surveyed were: Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; Czech Republic; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; India; Italy, Japan; Mexico; Netherlands; Norway; Spain; Switzerland; Turkey; United Kingdom; and the United States.
