Gender diversity is equitable or fair representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but also includes people of intersex gender. [1] Gender diversity on corporate boards has been widely discussed, [2] [3] [4] and many ongoing initiatives study and promote gender diversity in fields traditionally dominated by men, including computing, engineering, medicine, and science. It is argued that some proposed explanations are without merit and are in fact dangerous, while others do play a part in a complex interaction of factors. It is suggested that the very nature of science may contribute to the removal of women from the 'pipeline'. [5]
Companies are more likely to attract more diverse people, [6] and people who consider gender equality policies when considering different employers. [7]
Some studies show that higher diversity in the workforce is expected to bring higher returns, but other studies fails to support this claim. [8]
Gender diversity in companies leads to improved reputation both directly and indirectly. Directly, companies with a higher percentage of women board directors are favorably viewed in sectors that operate close to the final customers and are more likely, for instance, to be on Ethisphere Institute's list of the "World's Most Ethical Companies".
Indirectly, women directors are more likely to notice and less likely to commit fraud. Moreover, gender diversity policies seem also to be correlated with increased CSR, as well as having better overall organizational image. [9] [10]
Since men and women have different viewpoints, ideas, and market insights, a gender-diverse workforce enables better problem solving. A study done in 2014 by Gallup finds that hiring a gender-diverse workforce allows the company to serve an increasingly diverse customer base. This happens because a gender-diverse workforce eases the process of accessing resources, such as multiple sources of information or credit, and industry knowledge. [11] Gender diverse organizations were also shown to benefit from increased customer understanding and satisfaction. [12]
Gender diversity in boards increases diversity of ideas by introducing different perspectives and problem-solving approaches. This gives teams increased optionality and decision-making advantages. [13]
A recent survey by RSA found that women are considered to "bring empathy and intuition to leadership", since they have greater awareness of the motivations and concerns of other people.[ citation needed ] 62 per cent of the respondents of the survey said women contribute differently in the boardroom than their male colleagues. A similar proportion saw women as more empathetic, with a better insight into how decisions play out in the wider organization. When it came to communications and effective collaboration, "over half felt that women were better". [14] [15] Gender-diverse organisations also enjoy heightened levels of creativity, innovation and problem-solving. [16] [17] [18] A study in this topic found there is a small difference in attendance when the director is a woman. Among 74 firms in which 3.4% were male directors and 3.2% were women, there were problems with attendance. Although it is a 0.02% difference, out of 84 directors, 7 were women. [19]
Between Spring 2014 and Spring 2015 there was an increase in the number of female Chairs within the FTSE 100 reports. [20] Spring 2014 saw 1 female chair in the FTSE; this increased to 3 by Spring 2015. The number of female CEOs in the FTSE 100 also rose between 2014 and 2015. In Spring 2014 there were 4 female CEOs in the FTSE 100; this increased to 5 by Spring 2015. By 2017, the number of female CEOs among Fortune 500 companies numbered 32 (~6%). [21] Female CFOs in the FTSE 100 saw the highest increase. In Spring 2014 there were 8 female CFOs in the FTSE 100; this rose to 12 by Spring 2015.
In 2011 the United Kingdom government introduced the Voluntary Code for Executive search Firms with a view to improving gender diversity within FTSE companies. [22]
As of 2016, State Street Global Advisors offers an exchange traded fund (ETF) that tracks companies with relatively high proportions of women in executive and director positions. [23] The ETF follows an index of 185 publicly traded US companies with gender-diverse executive leadership, defined as Senior VP or higher. [23] [24] Each company in the index must include at least one woman on its board or as CEO. [24] The fund trades under the symbol SHE
and has risen 4.96% in value in its first nine months since inception. [24] In support of addressing systemic gender bias against women in leadership and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) that manifests early in life, the ETF provider has pledged to direct an unknown portion of its revenue to charitable organizations. [25]
The analysis of The Internet Movie Database (IMDb, 2005 data dump) shows how wide the gender gap is in the film industry, especially for the most prestigious types of jobs. There are nearly twice as many actors as actresses in IMDb. Prestigious jobs such as composer, cinematographer, director are respectively 88%, 76%, and 86% male-dominated. [26]
The life sciences industry covers a lot of ground and includes pharmaceutical companies, research support and services firms, research tool and reagent manufacturers, among other types, though in some contexts it is equated with drug development companies (Big Pharma and small pharma). According to a pair of 2017 industry reports, men and women enter the industry in equal numbers, but women comprise ¼ or less of C-suite positions, and less than 20% of Board of Directors positions. [27] [28] The first female CEO of a large pharmaceutical company emerged in 2017—Emma Walmsley at GlaxoSmithKline—which translates to 1% of Big Pharma CEOs being women. [27]
State Street Corporation, is a global financial services and bank holding company headquartered at One Congress Street in Boston with operations worldwide. It is the second-oldest continually operating United States bank; its predecessor, Union Bank, was founded in 1792. State Street is ranked 15th on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets. It is one of the largest asset management companies in the world with US$3.9 trillion under management and US$43.3 trillion under custody and administration. It is the largest custodian bank in the world, providing securities services and it is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. Along with BlackRock and Vanguard, State Street is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers that dominate corporate America.
A chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest officer charged with the management of an organization – especially a company or nonprofit institution.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, futures contracts, and/or commodities such as gold bars. The list of assets that each ETF owns, as well as their weightings, is posted on the website of the issuer daily, or quarterly in the case of active non-transparent ETFs. Many ETFs provide some level of diversification compared to owning an individual stock.
A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to people of marginalized genders, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents an oppressed demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. No matter how invisible the glass ceiling is expressed, it is actually an obstacle difficult to overcome. The metaphor was first used by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. It was coined by Marilyn Loden during a speech in 1978.
The Straits Times Index is a capitalisation-weighted measurement stock market index that is regarded as the benchmark index for the stock market in Singapore. It tracks the performance of the top 30 companies that are listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is the investment management division of State Street Corporation and the world's fourth largest asset manager, with nearly $4.14 trillion (USD) in assets under management as of 31 December 2021.
Egon Zehnder is a global management consulting and executive search firm. Egon Zehnder is the world's largest privately held executive search firm and the third largest executive search and talent strategy firm globally with an annual revenue of CHF 883 million. The firm offers services in Executive Search, Board Consulting and Leadership Strategy Services.
SPDR funds are a family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) traded in the United States, Europe, Mexico and Asia-Pacific and managed by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). Informally, they are also known as Spyders or Spiders. SPDR is a trademark of Standard and Poor's Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of S&P Global. The name is an acronym for the first member of the family, the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, now the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF, which is designed to track the S&P 500 stock market index.
Businesses benefit by having diversity in their work force. The business case for diversity stems from the progression of the models of diversity within the workplace since the 1960s. In the United States, the original model for diversity was situated around affirmative action drawing from equal opportunity employment objectives implemented in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Equal employment opportunity was centered around the idea that any individual academically or physically qualified for a specific job could strive for at obtaining the said job without being discriminated against based on identity. These initiatives were met with accusations that tokenism was the reason an individual was hired into a company when they differed from the dominant group. Dissatisfaction from minority groups eventually altered and/or raised the desire to achieve perfect employment opportunities in every job.
The phrase women in business refers to women who hold positions, particularly leadership in the fields of commerce, business, and entrepreneurship. It advocates for their increased participation in business.
Catalyst Inc. is a global nonprofit founded by feminist writer and advocate Felice Schwartz in 1962. Schwartz also served as Catalyst's president for 31 years.
The feminization of the workplace is the feminization, or the shift in gender roles and sex roles and the incorporation of women into a group or a profession once dominated by men, as it relates to the workplace. It is a set of social theories seeking to explain occupational gender-related discrepancies.
The concept of multicultural and diversity management encompasses acceptance and respect, recognition and valuing of individual differences. Diversity is defined as differences between people, that can include dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. Multiculturalism refers to the existence of linguistically, culturally and ethnically diverse segments in an organisation.
Gender representation on corporate boards of directors refers to the proportion of men and women who occupy board member positions. To measure gender diversity on corporate boards, studies often use the percentage of women holding corporate board seats and the percentage of companies with at least one woman on their board. Globally, men occupy more board seats than women. As of 2018, women held 20.8% of the board seats on Russell 1000 companies. Most percentages for gender representation on corporate boards refer only to public company boards. Private companies are not required to disclose information on their board of directors, so the data is less available.
Women in positions of power are women who hold an occupation that gives them great authority, influence, and/or responsibility in government or in businesses. Historically, power has been distributed among the sexes disparately. Power and powerful positions have most often been associated with men as opposed to women. As gender equality increases, women hold more and more powerful positions in different sectors of human endeavors.
Real Assets is an investment asset class that covers investments in physical assets such as real estate, energy, and infrastructure. Real assets have an inherent physical worth. Real assets differ from financial assets in that financial assets get their value from a contractual right and are typically intangible.
The 30% Club is a campaign group of business chairpersons and CEOs taking action to increase gender diversity on boards and senior management teams. It was established in the United Kingdom in 2010 by Helena Morrissey with the aim of achieving a minimum of 30% female representation on the boards of FTSE 100 companies. That target was reached in September 2018. The club now also has chapters in Australia, Brazil, Canada, East Africa, GCC, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Southern Africa, Turkey and the U.S. In 2015 Brenda Trenowden was appointed as the new lead for the UK chapter and as Global Chair of the campaign, reflecting its increased reach and scale since launch. As of June 2019, the leadership structure of the campaign further evolved in response to its ongoing success and international influence, with Ann Cairns joining as global co-chair of the campaign. The Club continues to expand its global footprint and has exceeded its original UK goal, with 30% women sitting on FTSE 100 Boards as of 2021.
Dame Emma Natasha Walmsley is the chief executive officer (CEO) of GlaxoSmithKline. She succeeded Sir Andrew Witty, who retired in March 2017. Before GSK, she worked for L'Oréal for 17 years, and was a non-executive director of Diageo until September 2016. She grew up in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England.
Fearless Girl is a bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal, on Broad Street across from the New York Stock Exchange Building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The statue was installed on March 7, 2017, in anticipation of International Women's Day the following day. It depicts a 4-foot high (1.2 m) girl promoting female empowerment.