2010-03-08 07:55:33
The world's leading companies are failing to make the most of the talents of
their female workforce, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said.
Women are still failing to break into senior management or onto the board, the
Corporate Gender Gap report said.
The US led the way with the highest percentage of female employees (52%), while
India had the lowest (23%).
To tackle the problem, the WEF urged companies to do more to educate and
utilise female talent.
The report is based on a survey of 600 of the heads of Human Resources at the
world's largest employers across 16 industries in 20 countries.
Gender 'myth'
"The findings of The Corporate Gender Gap Report are an alarm bell on
International Women's Day that the corporate world is not doing enough to
achieve gender equality" said report co-author Saadia Zahidi.
The dearth of women at the top must surely be depriving the UK of incremental
income at a time when we need every penny we can squeeze to pay our way in the
world
Robert Peston, BBC business editor
"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."
The study found that while Norway was leading the way on getting women into top
company jobs - following legislation to ensure that 40% of a public company
board is female - elsewhere female employees tend to be concentrated in entry
or middle level positions.
The average number of women holding the CEO level position was a little less
than 5% 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.
Most respondents blamed traditional and cultural practices, "masculine or
patriarchal corporate culture" and "lack of role models" for women being unable
to move up the career ladder.
"Women account for one-half of the potential talent base throughout the world
and therefore, over time, a nation's competitiveness depends significantly on
whether and how it educates and utilises its female talent," added Professor
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Forum.
Traditional divides
The services sector employs the greatest percentage of women, and within this
sector Financial Services and Insurance (60%), Professional Services (56%) and
the Media and Entertainment Industry (42%) employ the greatest proportion of
women.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, sectors more traditionally viewed as "male" employed
the lowest percentage of women - automotive (18%), mining (18%) and agriculture
(21%).
The report also highlighted the ongoing issue of the gender pay gap.
Despite almost all countries bringing in measures to tackle the problem - only
Brazil and Mexico have taken no action - a pay divide remains between the
sexes, while most employers (72%) do not attempt to track salary gaps at all.
On a more positive note, 40% said they were taking some kind of action to
improve the participation of women in their workforce such as implementing
targets, quotas or flexible working schemes for parents.
Countries surveyed for the study were Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech
Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and US.