No. CCXXXII; July 28, 2015
THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS:
I. WOMEN CEOS PERCEIVED AS STRONG LEADERS AS MALE CEOS
II. WOMEN STILL FAR FROM EQUAL REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENTS GLOBALLY
III. TIME FOR A WOMAN UN SECRETARY-GENERAL IN 2017
IV. CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP IN SILICON VALLEY
I. WOMEN CEOS PERCEIVED AS STRONG LEADERS AS MALE CEOS
If companies are hesitating to name a woman CEO out of fear for their company’s reputation, they should not wait any longer. According to a recent study conducted by KRC Research and Weber Shandwick, approximately the same percentage of employees at companies with male and female CEOs responded that their CEO’s reputation is “very strong.” While women are perceived as equally able once they get to the top post, the problem that remains is getting more of them into C-suite positions that lead to the top job. In the global survey, only 8% of companies had a woman CEO, while only 4% of the US Fortune 500 companies are led by women.
The study also revealed that women are less likely to aspire to be the CEO. Globally, 32% of men said they wanted to be the leader of a large company in the future, but only 23% of women did. In North America, even fewer women — just 9% — aspired to be CEO. However, women executives in companies already led by a woman CEO were more likely to aspire for the top post than their counterparts in companies with male CEOs. (Fortune, June 30, 2015). Bottom line — without more role models of women leading companies, less women are likely to aim for those positions.
Does a woman CEO make a difference for other women? The 2011 Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI) Report: Women CEOs Opening Doors to Boardrooms and C-Suites Globally showed that companies with women CEOs in 39 countries had a higher percentage of women in corporate leadership — 22.3% women board directors compared to the 9.8% average female representation in peer companies, and 24.3% women in senior management compared to 12.2% in companies led by men.
“Clearly, having a woman at the top of the corporate pyramid makes a difference for other women,” states CWDI Chair Irene Natividad. “Women help other women reach senior roles that are normally difficult to access.” For more CWDI research, visit www.globewomen.org/cwdi/cwdi/htm.
II. WOMEN STILL FAR FROM EQUAL REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENTS GLOBALLY
Women in Parliaments are often the catalysts for change, particularly in issues related to gender equality. However, women Parliamentarians are still largely not present in significant numbers in government bodies around the world. According to recent data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, only 22.2% of Parliamentarians in 180 countries around the world are women. Over the past decade, the percentage of women in Parliaments has been stagnant — increasing from 15.8% in 2005 to 22.2% today, an increase of only 6.4%, or less than 1% annually.
Some of Rwanda’s female majority Parliamentarians
Rwanda continues to be the country with the highest percentage of women in Parliament. In its Lower House, 63.8% are women, while women represent 38.5% of Upper House members. The only other country to join Rwanda with a majority of women in the Lower House is Bolivia, which has 53.1% women. Bolivia’s Upper House is also close to equality with 47.2% women.
Other countries at the top include Cuba, the Seychelles, Sweden, Senegal, and South Africa. Ecuador, Iceland, Finland, Namibia, Nicaragua, and Spain also have over 40% women in their Lower or single House of Representatives for a total of 13 countries with over 40%. Ten years ago, only Rwanda and Sweden had over 40% women in Parliament. (Data from www.ipu.org).
III. TIME FOR A WOMAN UN SECRETARY-GENERAL IN 2017?
Ninety-six percent of respondents to a survey in the UK newspaper, the Guardian, agreed that it was time to have a woman named U.N. Secretary-General. Advocating for the cause, a group called Equality Now, gathered 20,000 signatures which they have sent to the General Assembly underscoring the need for women to lead this international agency. The group’s campaign succeeded, helping to prod the General Assembly to draft a resolution highlighting gender equality.
As the regional rotation for the next Secretary-General potentially moves to Eastern Europe, leading candidates from the region include the Head of UNESCO Irina Bokova and EU Commissioner and economist Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva. Also mentioned as possible candidates from other regions include IMF Chief Christine Lagarde, President of Chile and former Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet, and the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Head of UNDP Helen Clark.
Under the leadership of current Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, who created UN Women, the UN has focused more deeply on gender equality. However, does it make a difference to have a woman heading up this global body? Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson was quoted as saying, “It matters for women’s empowerment globally,” she said. “Women very often have a different way of leading, which could reinvigorate the United Nations as a whole, because there is more listening, being inclusive and working in practical ways to resolve problems.” (The Guardian, July 9, 2015)
IV. CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP IN SILICON VALLEY
Men in Silicon Valley earn up to 61% more than their female peers, according to Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an industry research group. Some companies, however, are striving to end the pay differences between men and women. Salesforce, a San Francisco-based cloud computing company, is one such company making efforts to raise the salaries of underpaid women one at a time.
Noticing that he was chairing a meeting with no women present, Salesforce Co-Founder and CEO Marc Benioff started what he called the Women’s Surge to achieve 100 percent equality for men and women in pay and promotion, and to make sure that at least one-third of all participants at any meetings were women. Two of the women initially promoted, Cindy Robbins who became Head of Human Resources and Head of the Desk.com unit Leyla Seka, raised the issue with their CEO that even with his personal leadership on gender equity in the company, women were being paid less than men. The company then embarked on a unique, systematic effort to evaluate each position and to make the necessary salary adjustments when it found a disparity in wages.
Salesforce is not alone in trying to address pay discrepancies. Facebook, for example, claims to review its compensation data yearly and makes adjustments when it finds inequity. Other smaller companies are also taking innovative approaches, such as having salaries be transparent internally. With large gender pay gap still present, though, it will take a combination of assertive employees, closer monitoring of compensation data, and managerial efforts to promote men and women equally to reduce the gap. (New York Times, 7/26/16)
See photos and presentations from the 2015 Summit at www.globewomen.org/globalsummit
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Polish delegates at the Closing Ceremony of the 2015 Global Summit of Women inviting delegates to Poland in 2016.
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