News: Women on boards in India doubled in 6 years: Report

Diversity

Women on boards in India doubled in 6 years: Report

The Credit Suisse Gender 3000 report also slams the myth of the Queen Bee Syndrome which argues that women in top management actively exclude other women from promotions in the senior posts.
Women on boards in India doubled in 6 years: Report

Research has proved that companies with higher participation of women in the decision-making roles always generate higher returns and great profits. And Indian organizations seem to have been learning the lesson pretty well. Over the past 6 years, women on boards in India have doubled from 5.5% in 2010 to 11.2% in 2016, according to the report announced by Credit Suisse Gender 3000 (CSG 3000) report. The global average is 14.7%.

The report, first launched in 2014, analyses the Credit Suisse Gender 3000 (CSG 3000), which encompasses 27,000 senior managers at over 3,000 companies Credit Suisse analysts cover globally. 

However, on managing diversity, India has moved a few decimal points lower which came down to 7.2% in 2016 from 7.8% in 2014.

And the report slammed the myth of the Queen Bee syndrome, which argues that women in the senior posts actively seek to exclude other women from promotions into top management. As per the report, female CEOs globally are more likely to surround themselves with other women in senior roles. Female CEOs are 50% more likely than male CEOs to have a female CFO and 55% more likely to have women running business units.

On the gender diversity at the management, India scored poorly as management diversity came down from 7.8 per cent in 2014 to 7.2 per cent. "India is the second lowest in the region in terms of female representation at a senior management level, behind Japan and South Korea (both at 2.3 per cent)," a release by Credit Suisse stated. The top 5 countries with the highest percentage of women represented on corporate boards are Norway (46.7 percent), France (34 percent), Sweden (33.6 percent), Italy (30.8 percent) and Finland (30.8 percent). Among the 12 Asia-Pacific countries surveyed, Australia has the highest representation of women in the boardroom (20.1 percent). 

"Of the 265 Asia-Pacific companies with over $10 billion market capitalisation, those with at least one female board member delivered 58% outperformance in share prices from 2006 to July 2016," the report noted. 

Meanwhile, Emerging Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) also saw higher levels of gender diversity in finance and strategy roles compared with the 2014 results. Women make up 14.1% of CFOs globally, with Emerging Asia -- China in particular -- leading with a 22% female representation, the report said.

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Topics: Diversity, Culture

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