I. CWDI OPENS AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE TO SALUTE ASX BOARD DIVERSITY INITIATIVES
II. NEW WOMEN IN CHARGE: POLAND’S NEW PRIME MINISTER EWA KOPACZ AND BANCO SANTANDER’SANA BOTIN
III. WOMEN-LED ASEAN COMPANIES OUTPERFORM PEERS
IV. WOMEN MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN MEN ON CROWDFUNDING WEBSITES
V. FATHERS’ CAREERS BENEFIT WHILE MOTHERS’ SUFFER
I. CWDI OPENS AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE TO SALUTE ASX BOARD DIVERSITY INITIATIVES
Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI) Chair Irene Natividad and Australian Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick were joined by women board directors and executives to open the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on September 10, 2014 to mark Australia’s successful efforts to promote women’s increased presence on corporate boards. This was the 14th stock exchange opened by CWDI, the research arm of the Global Summit of Women, to spotlight women’s business leadership and the contributions made by women to each country’s economy.
Women Directors and Executives at ASX with CWDI Chair Irene Natividad
Commissioner Broderick, Chairman Holliday-Smith, and CWDI Chair Natividad
Citing the ASX as the ‘gold standard’ in stock exchange gender diversity initiatives, Ms. Natividad recognized ASX’s efforts with a Corporate Champion Award accepted by its Chairman RIck Holliday-Smith at a Forum on Board Diversity following Market Open. Ms. Natividad also applauded the work of Australia’s Male Champions of Change — one of whose members is ASX CEO Elmer Kupper — as a “best practice” now being replicated in several other countries to drive gender diversity on boards. Two other “Male Champions” — CEO of rail operator Aurizon Lance Hockridge and former CEO of IBM Australia Andrew Stevens — along with Commissioner Broderick, who formed the Male Champions of Change, engaged in a dialogue on how to move the needle further for women to access board seats.
Women now hold 18.3% of board seats of ASX 200 companies. Five years ago, before the ASX guidelines requiring companies to report on the gender diversity of their leadership and workforce, the percentage was just 8.3%.
II. POLAND’S NEW PRIME MINISTER EWA KOPACZ AND BANCO SANTANDER’S ANA BOTIN
In Poland, Ewa Kopacz became the country’s second-ever female Prime Minister when she was sworn in on September 22. Kopacz, a pediatrician by profession, served as Minister of Health from 2007-2011 before becoming the first woman to serve as Marshal of Sejm (Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament). Kopacz replaces Donald Tusk, who was chosen to head the European Council and will govern for one year before elections.
Kopacz becomes one of 17 women currently serving as Prime Minister or President throughout the world. To see a complete list of women leading governments, click here
When Ana Botin succeeded her father as Chairman of Banco Santander, Europe’s biggest bank, she became the first woman to head a major European lender, according to the Wall Street Journal. She is also the only woman to lead a blue-chip company not only in Spain, but in all of Western Europe.
Botin previously oversaw Santander operations in the UK, Spain, and Latin America, after starting her career with JP Morgan. As Head of Santander in the UK, she turned the unit from unprofitable to currently accounting for 20% of the bank’s net profit. She joins a short list of six other women currently serving as CEOs or chairs of major banks: Kathleen Taylor, chairman of Royal Bank of Canada; Annika Falkengren, CEO of Sweden’s SEB; Chanda Kochar, CEO of India’s ICICI Bank; Gail Kelly, CEO of Australia’s Westpac; Beth Mooney, chairman and CEO of U.S.’s KeyCorp; and Maria Ramos, CEO of Barclays Africa. (Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2014)
III. WOMEN-LED ASEAN COMPANIES OUTPERFORM PEERS
Companies with women CEOs in the ASEAN region outperform peer companies in their country and in the region, according to new research by the Global Women CEO Project. The research covered 3,553 companies in the ASEAN region, of which 120 (3.38%) were led by a woman CEO, between the years of 2009-2014. The stock price of the companies with women CEOs increased an average of 36.32% over the five-year period, while the ASEAN benchmark index increased only 17.54%.
The countries whose companies with women CEOs performed the best were the Philippines (62.74%) and Malaysia (42.04%), which outperformed their male peers by 34.67% and 26.04%, respectively. Regarding size of company, large- and mid-cap companies led by women performed better than small-cap companies with women CEOs, though women-led small-cap companies still bested their male counterparts by 8.15%. Women-led companies tended to be smaller (89 of 120), while only nine women led large-cap companies. (“ASEAN Women CEO”, Global Women CEO Project, IFRC Research, July 2014)
While the Global Women CEO Project details the better financial performance of women-led companies, CWDI’s research has shown that companies with women CEOs place more women on the Boards of Directors and in senior management. In its 2011 report on Women CEOs – Opening Doors to Board Rooms and C-Suites Globally, CWDI examined 112 women-led companies in 39 countries. The result was that companies with women CEOs have 22.3% women on their boards compared to 9.8% average representation of women on the boards of blue chip companies in the countries included in the study. The pattern held in all regions no matter which country or what size company.
Source: 2011 CWDI Report: Women CEOs – Opening Doors to Board Rooms and C-Suites Globally
Similarly, these women-led companies had a higher percentage of women in senior management at 24.3% than the average representation of women in executive roles in peer companies (12.2%). Again, while rates of increase differed, the same pattern held for the majority of companies with women at the helm in all regions of the world. (Click here for CWDI Report Summary)
IV. WOMEN MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN MEN ON CROWDFUNDING WEBSITES
While women often have more difficulty obtaining financing to start or grow a business, they are succeeding in securing funding through crowdfunding sites. On Kickstarter and Indiegogo, where backers make contributions to entrepreneurial projects, women-led enterprises are reaching their funding goal more often than men due to support from women helping other women, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
On Indiegogo, women are 61% more likely than men to reach their financial target, while women are 13% more likely to reach their goals on Kickstarter. The female success rate is particularly strong in fields where women are less likely to find financing through traditional means, such as technology and gaming. On Kickstarter, women-led companies account for less than 10% of technology projects, but 65% of the women-led technology ventures reached their fundraising goals compared to only 30% of technology start-ups with male founders. (Source: Wall Street Journal, August 13)
Crowdfunding has been discussed at the past two Global Summits of Women in Malaysia in 2013 and in France in 2014 to make women aware of the possibilities of this new funding source for women starting businesses or who wish to support women-led entrepreneurial projects. To view some of the presentations from these panels, click here for: presentation from StartSomeGood, presentation from Kiva.org or presentation from Malaysian crowd-funding site, pitchIn.
V. FATHERS’ CAREERS BENEFIT WHILE MOTHERS’ SUFFER
Data from the US Census Bureau this month revealed the gender pay gap in the US has closed only 1 cent since 2012, from women earning 77 cents to 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. One of the main causes of the pay gap is unconscious bias related to the birth of a child, according to a new study examining 27 years of data.
Mothers are less likely to be hired for jobs or paid as much as their male colleagues, given perceptions that they will be less focused on their work. Men with children, meanwhile, are more likely to be hired than childless men and are paid more after having children, because they are seen as more stable. The study found that men’s earnings increased more than 6% when they had children, while women’s decreased more than 4% for each child they had. The gap held after controlling for experience, education, hours worked and spousal incomes. The majority of the gap is because of discrimination, the research suggests. “A lot of these effects really are very much due to a cultural bias against mothers,” said Shelley J. Correll, a sociology professor at Stanford University.
One policy change which may affect the wage gap is paternity leave. As more companies in the U.S., such as Facebook and Yahoo, grant paternity leave to employees, assumptions surrounding traditional gender roles may begin to change. The result could end up easing the penalties women face in the workforce after having a child. Unfortunately, only 17% of U.S. companies currently provide paid parental leave. Traditional assumptions about gender still hold even in countries with generous paid leave policies. In France, Germany and Austria, only 2% of fathers take paid leave, compared to 90% of mothers. (New York Times, 9/6/14 and Washington Post, 7/29/14).
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