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38% businesses worldwide don't have women in the higher rungs

Bangalore March 27 Four in ten businesses worldwide have no women in senior management but India, which has integrated itself into the global market, boasts a modest but increasing participation of women in senior levels even as developed countries such as the US and Italy reported a decline.

The latest findings from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) said 38 per cent of businesses do not have any woman in senior management roles, a figure, which had remained unchanged since 2004. Only in 22 per cent of the businesses worldwide, senior positions are held by women.

The Survey covers the opinions of 7,200 privately held businesses in 32 countries, represents 81 per cent of global GDP.

Asia dominates the scene, showing an increase in the participation of women in the top level with India leading at 14 per cent followed by Taiwan and the Philippines at 13 per cent and Hong Kong at 9 per cent. Among the European countries Spain's 16 per cent and Sweden's 9 per cent reflected a marginal increase.

Philippines, with 97 per cent of businesses accommodating women in senior management positions — the highest in the survey — was the only country where women had parity to men in senior management. Japan, with only 25 per cent was the lowest. Four out of the five countries with the lowest figures were in Europe: the Netherlands at 27 per cent, Luxembourg at 37 per cent, Germany at 41 per cent and Italy at 42 per cent.

Top-rung participation

In more than half of all European businesses surveyed, 52 per cent had women participating in senior management, while the figure for NAFTA countries was 68 per cent. Compared with three years ago European businesses had four per cent more women in senior management, whereas NAFTA countries had six per cent more.

Mexico with a drop of 24 per cent, Russia with 15 per cent, Poland with 9 per cent, Italy, New Zealand and the US with 6 per cent reported a fall in businesses with lady senior managers.

Ms Pallavi Bhakru, Partner & Director-International Business at Grant Thornton, said " In India, globalisation has provided opportunities for educated, middle class women to build their own dreams and excel in fields, which were hitherto perceived as male domains."

Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Biocon, commented, "The world over, gender equality remains a contentious issue. Political and corporate rhetoric does not reflect the ground reality.

The Grant Thornton report, however, indicates some hopeful trends with Asia taking the lead". The percentage of women in senior managerial positions globally has grown slightly from 19 to 22 per cent since 2004.

The Philippines tops the list with 50 per cent of managerial positions being held by females, ahead of Brazil with 42 per cent, Thailand with 39 per cent and Hong Kong with 35 per cent.

Lowest in the table is Japan with just 7 per cent, below three European countries Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands at 10 per cent, 12 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. The EU's proportion of women in senior management has remained static at 17 per cent while NAFTA's figure has increased from 20 per cent to 23 per cent.

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