Singapore Leads in Women in Senior Management; China Is Tops in Junior Management - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Among Asian nations, Singapore has the largest share of women in senior management, while mainland China has the most women in junior management posts.

• The data come from the first Gender Diversity Benchmark report by Community Business, a Hong Kong-based charity, with Diversity & Inclusion in Asia Network. The 13-company network includes American Express, Microsoft, Shell and Standard Chartered Bank, and each member provided data on the number of women it employs in each country and their managerial levels. A similar but global report by Grant Thornton placed the share of women in senior management positions at 31%.

• Success in promoting women appears to go hand-in-hand with the share of women in the workplace. Mainland China, with 42% of its workforce being female, was well ahead of countries like India, where the share is only 25%.

• Besides tabulating the network data, the report also interviewed two women from each region for each company. The women reported that work-life balance remained a critical issue, as well as confronting stereotypes about a woman’s role within the family.

• The report called on Asian companies to better inform about the number and level of women in their workforces and to improve networking opportunities for women.

The South China Morning Post article