Laggard Georgia Sees Some Gains for Women in Business - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Georgia ranks low among countries with women as business leaders, but the situation is improving, both the government and the United Nations report.

• The number of women in executive management positions rose 15% during 2007, according to the most recent government statistics. But only 0.2% of women in Georgia own a large business, and even at small businesses, just 29% of the owners are women.

• The UN Development Programme official Charita Jashi told Georgia Business Week, “[H]urdles are higher for women” in Georgia than elsewhere, “although the situation has progressed remarkably compared to past years.”

• Still, more than half of the 816,200 working women in 2007 were employed in agriculture, with just under 1 in 10 in education and in retail. 2.3% fewer women were working than in 2005.

• A 2009 Grant Thornton International study found that 34% of companies had no female senior managers and that women held only 24% of what it calls senior managing positions, showing no improvement since 2007 and well below other Western and Asian countries.

• Therefore, the International Finance Corporation, USAID, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, UNDP and other international organizations are facilitating discussions on improving gender equality and thus Georgia’s economic development.

• An IFC survey found that 37% of large Georgian companies with at least one woman on the supervisory board reported significant improvement in corporate governance in the past three years, vs only 23% of firms with no women on the board.

• Maia Tevzadze, acting manager of the IFC Georgia Corporate Governance Project said, “We are planning to develop and deliver a workshop targeting women business owners and women in senior management this summer.”

The Georgian Business Week report