Where have all the women gone?
By Mark Holden in Leadership
In a media release on May 20, 2003 I made the following statement:
Female CEOs needed to avoid more corporate disasters
Business disasters like HIH and Pan Pharmaceuticals could be avoided if more women were running big companies, according to one of Australia's leading executive trainers.
Thinking about it in the context of the current global economic crisis, perhaps the headline could read:
More female CEOs needed to avoid future global economic crisis’
I was not really prepared for the furore this media statement (2003) unleashed. The Sydney Morning Herald gave it front page space pointing to a website where people could vote and comment, The Age in Melbourne ran a page three article as well as a similar web site. I was contacted and interviewed live on a range of radio stations across the country, in addition I also spoke live on BBC radio London and appeared on a TV chat show about the statement. Despite the fact it was great exposure and a lot of fun, I had obviously touched a raw nerve ending.
During that time I produced a paper titled “Leading Women – are women really superior to men?”, just recently I have updated the statistics in this document and have made a copy available in this issue of our newsletter. The interesting thing is, in seven years there hasn’t been any significant change in the status of women in leadership. Some change, no change and some slight losses, but no significant change for the better.
The latest statistics from EOWA (Equal Opportunity for Women Agency) published in 2009 state the following:
- Women currently make up 45.3% of the workforce
- 2% of Chairs in the ASX200 are women
- 8.3% of Board Directors in ASX200 are women
- 10.7% of Executive Managers in the ASX are women
- 33.5% of managers in organisations reporting to EOWA are women
- 47.8% of managers in EOWA Employer of Choice for Women (EOCFW) organisations are women
Clearly women are not present at executive leadership level and above. And what is even more disturbing, the statistics relating to executive leadership for 2008 compared to 2006 show a decrease in the presence of female leadership – almost across the board!
In relation to the gender pay gap the statistics are equally concerning:
- On average, women working full time earn 18% less than men working full time
- Female graduates on entering the workforce earn $3,000p/a less than male graduates
- Women executive managers in the ASX200 earn an average of 28.3% less than their male peers
Source: EOWA
The only question I can think to ask here is, “Why?” If they are doing equal work then women should get equal pay!
One can only conclude that we are not taking women’s issues seriously enough, and that we are not treating the issue with the level of urgency it requires.
Women leaders = increased corporate profits
Here’s a strategy to help you increase your profits…put more women in leadership roles! There is mounting evidence that this strategy really works having a significant impact on your bottom line.
“Several studies have linked greater gender diversity in senior posts with financial success. European firms with the highest proportion of women in power saw their stock value climb by 64 percent over two years, compared with an average of 47 percent, according to a 2007 study by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company. Measured as a percent of revenues, profits at Fortune 500 firms that most aggressively promoted women were 34 percent higher than industry medians, a 2001 Pepperdine University study showed. And, just recently, a French business professor found that the share prices of companies with more female managers declined less than average on the French stock market in 2008.”
In a recent paper called ‘Women Matter’ published by McKinsey and Co, their extensive research around the value of women in leadership drew the following conclusions:
“There can be no double that, on average, these companies outperform their sector in terms of return on equity (11.4% vs an average 10.3%), operating result (EBIT 11.1% vs 5.8%), and stock price growth (64% vs 47% over the period of 2005 – 2007)
What conclusions should we draw? These statistically significant studies show that companies with a higher proportion of women in their management committees are also the companies that have the best performance. While these studies do not demonstrate a causal link, they do, however, give us a factual snapshot that can only argue in favour of greater gender diversity.”
Click here to read full report
There is significant, validated evidence that proves that greater diversity delivers improved performance and ultimately increased profits. We all know these two factors are the alpha male ‘hot buttons’, so why aren’t they jumping on the band wagon, making this happen and reaping the benefits? Are they afraid of too many women encroaching on their territory and challenging the boys club? Are women backing away when the opportunity arises and opting out for a more balanced lifestyle (and who could blame them)? Is the glass ceiling alive and well and filtering out women wanting to enter levels of executive leadership?
These are all good questions that need to be answered or at least considered in organisations where women are not present in significant numbers at executive leadership levels.
I would hope that within another seven years we, meaning corporate Australia, have made much more progress regarding women in leadership – and are reaping the profits!