Have a Female CEO at the helm of a company and increase performance

If you want to see a company’s diversity record clearly, looking to see if they have any women in their high positions is a good indicator.

Altrata’s latest Global Gender Diversity report examined BoardEx data to study female representation on the boards and leadership teams of 1,677 publicly traded companies in 20 countries as of the first quarter of this year.

Of course, there were some very worrying statistics found within the boards:

  • Only 28.2% of board members were female and many of these women were appointed to non-executive roles, which are often oversight roles rather than real decision-making power.

  • Only 9.9% of executive directors are women 

  • 8.9% of board chairs are female. 

  • Only 1 third of nonexecutive posts are held by women

  • None of the companies studied had an all-female board, but 81 had all-male boards, as of June 2022.

And the C-Suite data is unfortunately much worse:

  • Only 5% of CEOs are women 

  • 19.2% of corporate leadership team members are female

The world is missing out here! On a more hopeful note, the McKinsey 2020 report states that gender diversity boosts financial returns by 25%!! To ignore this data would be senseless from a business point of view or any view for that matter.

Here are some companies that are seeing these benefits:

Ulta Beauty has ranked second on the list of global companies with the most women in leadership positions. About 70% of its top management is female. As it stands today, women still dominate Ulta’s leadership team and half its board is female, including its chair.

Also, it’s good to keep in mind that a female CEO isn’t required to have gender diversity. Etsy, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Autodesk and Bath & Body Works all have male CEOs but still have a large percentage of women in key positions.

But, the report did say that having women in the C-suite is crucial to having more women rise to CEO ranks. Having women in these roles is a direct reflection of a company’s ability and enthusiasm- or lack thereof – to support and train them.

Maya Imberg and Maeen Shaban, the report’s lead authors said: “If not enough women are gaining the corporate experience necessary to qualify for the most powerful board roles, such as CEO, this may slow the progress towards achieving equity at the highest levels of corporate power,” 

There is slow progress. Thankfully, 11 of the 20 countries in the study have either mandatory or voluntary benchmarks for female board representation. Resulting in these countries having corporate boards that are 32% female. In contrast, 9 countries without this requirement (including the U.S.) the average is a lower 24%.

Here at netwomen.co, we want to improve this drastically. By joining us by either corporate or through individual membership, we will redefine the career paths for women to share knowledge and experiences on our platform to connect and learn, so we can change the leadership landscape and work to close the gender and ethnicity gap to make a sustainable difference. Our aim is a 50/50 gender split and a level playing field. 

Join our movement to elevate women around the world, including your staff or yourself, here: https://www.netwomen.co/memberships/

We can’t wait to meet you!

By Farlan netwomen ambassador


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