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ZHANG YIN (also known by her Cantonese name, Cheung Yan) was the eldest of
eight children of a lowly Red Army officer who was imprisoned during the
Cultural Revolution for capitalist offences . Today she is one of the world s
richest self-made women, with an estimated fortune of $1.6 billion. In the
early 1980s, as a dogsbody in a paper mill, she noted that the waste paper her
superiors so casually discarded was actually worth something. She has been
capitalising on her insight ever since. Nine Dragons Paper, which she founded
with her husband in 1995, is now one of the world s largest paper recyclers.
The emerging world is home to many businesswomen like Ms Zhang. Seven of the 14
women identified on Forbes magazine s list of self-made billionaires are
Chinese. Many firms in emerging markets do a better job of promoting women than
their Western rivals, some surveys suggest. In China, 32% of senior managers
are female, compared with 23% in America and 19% in Britain. In India, 11% of
chief executives of large companies are female, compared with 3% of Fortune 500
bosses in America and 3% of FTSE 100 bosses in Britain. Turkey and Brazil come
third and joint fourth (behind Finland and Norway) in the World Economic Forum
s ranking of countries by the proportion of CEOs who are women. In Brazil, 11%
of chief executives and 30% of senior executives are women.
Young, middle-class women are overtaking their male peers when it comes to
education. In the United Arab Emirates 65% of university graduates are female.
In Brazil and China the figures are 60% and 47% respectively. In Russia 57% of
college-age women are enrolled in tertiary education; only 43% of men are.
Business schools, those hothouses of capitalism, are feminising fast. Some 33%
of students at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in
Shanghai and 26% at the Indian School of Business are female, a figure
comparable with those of Western schools such as the Harvard Business School
and INSEAD.
In Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets: Why Women are the Solution
, Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid point out that businesswomen face steep
obstacles in emerging markets. How can they stay on the fast track if, as in
the UAE, they cannot travel without a male chaperone? And how can they be taken
seriously if, as in Russia, the term businesswoman is synonymous with
prostitute? In every emerging market women bear the lioness s share of family
responsibilities. In many places, deals are sealed with booze and male bonding.
The workload for tiger businesswomen can be crushing. Rapid growth means
exhausting change. Having customers in different time zones, as global Asian
firms often do, makes it worse. More than a quarter of the female high-fliers
surveyed by Ms Hewlett and Ms Rashid report working between eight and 18 hours
more each week than they did three years ago. And horrible commutes are common.
In IBM s ranking of the world s worst commutes, Beijing and Mexico City each
scored 99 out of a possible 100 pain points. New Delhi, Moscow and S o Paulo
also did appallingly. Female commuters often have to put up with leering,
groping men, particularly if they work late: 62% of Brazilian women say that
they feel unsafe travelling to work.
Still, young women have no shortage of high-profile role models, from Indra
Nooyi, the Indian-born boss of PepsiCo, to Dong Mingzhu, the author of one of
the bestselling business books in China. In Regretless Pursuit , Sister Dong,
as her fans call her, recounts her rise from saleswoman to boss of Gree
Electric, the country s biggest manufacturer of air-conditioners.
Living in emerging markets offers many advantages for female professionals.
Most obviously, there are plenty of cheap hands to cook and take care of
children. And corporate culture is changing astoundingly fast, not least
because companies are hiring so many young people. (Youngsters in India and
China grew up steeped in capitalism; their parents did not.)
Skills shortages spur a battle for brains. In some countries, companies expect
to lose a fifth of their highly skilled staff every year. So they will try
anything that might help them hang on to the talent. This includes becoming
more female-friendly. Many multinationals have created mentoring programmes and
women s networks. Boehringer Ingelheim, a drug company, and Citi, a bank, have
introduced short-term job placements to encourage women to travel. Goldman
Sachs (India) pairs expectant mothers with seasoned working mothers. Infosys,
an IT firm, provides pregnancy yoga . Wipro, another IT company, arranges
child-care camps on its campus during long holidays. GE India provides its
female staff with assertiveness training.
Wise firms focus on the two biggest problems for working women in emerging
markets: looking after their ageing parents, which is typically more of a
problem than child care, and commuting. A growing number of companies provide
flexi-time so that women can work from home. Ernst & Young holds family days to
show parents what their daughters have achieved. It also offers medical cover
for parents. Many companies provide their female staff with late-night shuttle
buses and female-only taxi companies are springing up in India, the UAE and
Brazil.
A woman s place is in the boardroom
All this might sound a bit namby-pamby to pioneers like Sister Dong (who says
that she hasn t had a holiday for 20 years) and Zhang Yin (who boasts that: My
success came from my character ). But namby-pambyism is a sign of progress.
Heroines who build empires out of sweat and determination are rare in any
culture. (As, indeed, are heroes.) Rapid growth in emerging markets is pulling
more women into corporate life. And as they show their mettle, patriarchal
attitudes are beginning to dissolve.