Research revealed that, in advance of International Women’s Day on March 8, more women are pursuing top management positions. Yet, there is no equality, with males holding most company leadership positions.
It is still a long road to the top, even with few well-publicized exceptions and legislation supporting increased quotas for female executives and board members.
According to a poll conducted last week by data research firm Equileap, just 7% of CEOs and 17% of finance directors in large, developed organizations were female.
“The battle for gender equality remains ongoing,” said Equileap’s CEO, Diana van Maasdijk.
According to a 2023 World Economic Forum report, “Women’s share of senior and leadership roles has seen a steady global increase over the past five years.” The percentage of women appointed into leadership roles increased from just over 33 percent in 2016 to almost 37 percent in 2022.
However, overall company representation statistics for women indicate they remain underrepresented at the top.
“Work structures have been built up over the last 200 years to accommodate men’s needs,” said Tara Cemlyn-Jones, the CEO of 25×25, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the gender balance in executive leadership roles.
“The only way that you can get around that is being consciously aware that you have to make sure the structures are equally fair to women,” she told AFP.
According to a Deloitte assessment of 10,500 businesses across 51 countries using data from 2021, only one in twenty chief executives were women. However, almost one in five board members were women.
Less than 6% of corporate directors in the US were women, compared to roughly 25% of board members.
In the United Kingdom, women comprised about 30% of board members but only 6% of executives.
Certain nations, like France, have passed laws to address the gender gap.
The nation topped Equileap’s list for gender equality in businesses. Compensation, leave, and harassment protection were among the criteria determining this.
A law establishing a minimum 40 percent female board quota was introduced in France in 2011.
Diane Segalen, chair of the recruitment firm Segalen + Associates, says the adjustments “will bear fruit in the long term.”
According to a Deloitte analysis, in France in 2021, women made up more than 40% of board members.
Partner at Deloitte Ariane Bucaille referred to the quotas as a “great accelerator.”
Although she acknowledged an increase in women serving on executive committees, “it is more in functions such as human resources and marketing.”
At the moment, only three companies have female chief executives on France’s top stock market index, the CAC 40.
Merck CEO Belen Garijo is the only female DAX CEO in Germany.
Giuseppina di Foggia was the CEO of public energy distributor Terna last year, making her the first woman to lead a significant listed corporation in Italy.
Except for Santander Bank, which is led by executive chairperson Ana Botin, who succeeded her late father, and Inditex, the parent company of Zara, which is led by Marta Ortega, the daughter of the company’s founder. Men still manage most companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange.
According to recent 25X25 research, women hold a “remarkably low” percentage of senior management roles. Such as finance director, which are stepping stones to CEO.
France introduced a law in 2021 to increase women in senior jobs by 30% by 2026 and 40% by 2029.
Bucaille claimed that this law “will encourage certain advancements.” But it’s inevitably slow.”
Cemlyn-Jones stated that systemic change is crucial, quotas or not, and investors will need to contribute to it.
“If their investment decisions are made 100 percent by white men from a very small social background, obviously, that’s going to ripple all the way through the system,” she stated.
“The investment cycle has to be made accountable. And questions should be asked, like, ‘how are these investment decisions being made?’ How is it tolerated that these fund managers are saying: ‘Don’t bother about gender?’ We don’t want to hear that.”
Despite this, Segalen, the director of recruitment, expressed confidence in the increase in women’s representation.
“I believe it is going to happen with the following generation, that got started in the 2000s,” she stated.
“They have elder women who are inspiring role models.”
