banner image
Women In Business 2023

Number of women execs rise

Pandemic-linked shifts in work practices have catapulted women to senior management positions, the Grant Thornton’s 2023 Women in Business (WIB) Report said.

This year’s WIB report shows nearly half or 49 percent of senior management roles are held by women, notches higher than 39 percent recorded in the 2022 report.

This is also way above the global average of 32.4 percent.

Majority of respondents shared the corporate positions held by women within their organizations include chief finance officer and human resources director. Nearly half or 42 percent of firms interviewed also said their sales directors are women.

Pandemic-related shifts in organizations’ work models were seen to have been beneficial for women leaders. More than half of mid-market firms surveyed said that their organizations have been utilizing a hybrid work model post-COVID, with 52 percent agreeing that their current work framework will help ensure visibility for more women staff.

“During the pandemic, we have seen the versatility of women in a phenomenon that experts called the ‘double shift’, where female staff juggled office work alongside their essential roles at home. It is interesting to see that more businesses are making significant changes to their organizational policies as they recover and adapt to the demands of the post-pandemic normal,” said Marivic Españo, P&A Grant Thornton chairperson and chief executive officer.

“But as we can see from the results of our WIB, progress in narrowing the gender disparity has been, for the longest time, just an offshoot effect of solutions to other workplace issues. The time is ripe to adopt strategies focused and dedicated solely to bridging the gender gap still present today,” Españo said.

The report tallied results of a survey of more than 100 mid-market companies in the Philippines across various industries.

While progress on the overall number of women in senior leadership in the Philippines continues, Grant Thornton’s latest research reveals that global progress has been slow, with the number of senior management positions in mid-market businesses held by women increasing only half a percentage point to 32.4 percent, and 13 percentage points since the research was first undertaken in 2003.

Karitha Ericson, global leader of network capability and culture at Grant Thornton International Ltd., said unless businesses develop cultures that empower people through flexible ways of working and take additional steps to support women into senior leadership positions, only 34 percent of senior leadership positions in mid-market businesses globally will be held by women in 2025.

“Businesses must take intentional actions to accelerate progress and strive for 40 percent of senior leadership roles to be held by women by 2025, so that they can reap the benefits of greater diversity,” Ericson said in a statement, pertaining to the global initiative to increase the proportion of women in senior leadership roles.

To more effectively address the global gender gap, Grant Thornton is making stronger global calls for mid-market businesses to push for gender parity and understands that intentional action from businesses is needed to accelerate progress.

The Grant Thornton report identifies factors which will support this acceleration. Firstly, women now hold a great number of senior management positions. This trend is likely to lead to new diversity strategies focused on increasing diversity at the senior management level and pushing more businesses towards gender parity.

Secondly, external pressures around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies demand the creation of new strategies, including a determined push towards more women in senior leadership. The establishment of global ESG standards and regulations is putting pressure on firms to form diverse leadership teams.

The most significant boost toward achieving gender parity could come from a continued commitment by businesses to provide increased flexible working. The IBR research also found that businesses which offer flexible, hybrid and home-based models have the highest levels of women in senior leadership roles.

In businesses that have adopted a hybrid way of working, 34 percent of senior leaders are women, while in businesses that are fully flexible where staff choose how they work, it is 36 percent. Meanwhile, only 29 percent of senior management roles is held by females in businesses with predominantly office-based models.

 

As published in Malaya Business Insight, dated 08 March 2023

Copy text of article