Fewer than one in four senior executives worldwide is female, Grant Thornton study shows
The proportion of women in senior business roles worldwide is unchanged this year from 2013 after recovering from a drop during the 2008 financial crisis, according to a study by accounting firm Grant Thornton.
Women currently make up 24 percent of senior management roles worldwide, according to the study, which is based on 6,700 executives in 45 countries. This number has increased since 2011, when it was 20 percent, and 2012 when it was 21 percent, but represents no change over last year, according to the firm’s latest International Business Report (iIBR).
‘The results from our IBR 2014 report are a disappointment,’ the study notes. ‘The data shows that less than a quarter of senior management roles are held by women. This is unchanged from 2013, and even from 2007, and suggests the proportion of women in senior management has returned to its ‘natural’ level following the financial crisis during which women were disproportionately hit.’
Eastern Europe has the world’s highest proportion of female executives this year, at 37 percent, with Russia to the fore at 43 percent, the study shows. The Russian figure is partially boosted by the country’s female-male population ratio of six-five and partly by the former Soviet Union’s efforts to promote women, the study adds.
South East Asia comes second, with women accounting for 35 percent of senior executives, in part because of an east Asian custom of grandparents taking care of children, freeing women to spend more time in the work force, the authors say.
Japan, at 9 percent, has the lowest proportion of female senior executives for the 10th year in a row. The Netherlands is next lowest, at 10 percent, and Switzerland has only 13 percent. Both countries have lower female representation at senior management levels than India and the United Arab Emirates, which both have 14 percent.
North American figures are closer to the world average, with women accounting for 23 percent of senior management in the US and 22 percent in Canada.
