Gender equality at the Forefront of Business in Singapore
Women were front and center at an executives’ breakfast last week in Singapore. The intimate gathering brought together some of the city’s most influential women in business to discuss women as employees, business leaders and consumers.
Despite corporate policies in place across the region to achieve greater gender parity, women remain underrepresented and disadvantaged in the business world compared to their male counterparts.
IFC’s Country Manager for Singapore, Rana Karadsheh, kicked off discussions by asking everyone to share their experiences. “I urge everyone in this room to take part in our candid conversation about gender so that we can better understand what works – whether in society at large, within the office or in the board room - and what doesn’t.”
Karadsheh hosted the event with two IFC Vice Presidents, Saran Kebet-Koulibaly and Jingdong Hua, and IFC East Asia Pacific Director, Vivek Pathak.
Today, half of the world’s women participate in the labor market, versus 77 percent of the world’s men. There are more women in the workforce than ever before, especially as many attend higher education programs and acquire diplomas and degrees. Yet many have fewer employment opportunities and lower incomes than their male counterparts. Women, especially in developing nations, also tend to have less access to capital and property ownership, stunting business expansion plans.
Although women’s associations exist in Singapore, event attendees called for greater unity and collaboration. Some suggested that industry bodies award companies that promote women to senior roles. Others sought to encourage women to take credit where it’s due with greater ownership for their initiatives, deals and projects. Talent mentorship and sponsorship also came up as ideas to encourage greater female inclusion in business circles.
Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State, joined the breakfast discussion:
“There’s been good progress but it’s clearly uneven and many women continue to operate in difficult circumstances. Take fathers’ involvement which benefit working mums. Societal values vary so much that the provision and use of paternity leave are starkly different around the world.” She advocated for more discussion on female inclusion and gender equality at all levels of society, not just at the upper echelons. Senior Minister Teo also noted the importance of engaging family and societal resources to support inclusion.
Others suggested a move toward diversifying human resources panels and installing hiring policies to maintain gender parity at the time of hiring talent. A few countries in the region, namely India and Malaysia, have prioritized diversity at the board level by legislating gender quotas to keep corporate leadership balanced. But attendees agreed that gender diversity must be proven to make business sense. The drive for equality is unlikely to gain momentum simply based on principle, instead it must be recognized as the smart thing to do.
According to a Korn Ferry report released last month, data shows a more gender-balanced board structure adds value to the bottom-line. Companies with at least 10 percent female board representation saw an average of 6.4 percent Return on Assets (ROA) and 14.3 percent Return on Equity (ROE). Those with fewer women on their boards had averages of 5.2 percent ROA and 11.8 percent ROE. More exposure of such findings and figures could help the corporate world and many industries to embrace women in the workforce and shrink serious gaps in support.
Women have also become key players as consumers and entrepreneurs. Kebet-Koulibaly cited research by the World Economic Forum: “Women will contribute $5 trillion in additional consumer spending and two thirds of global disposable income over the next decade. They are also big insurance buyers, expected to consume $1.7 trillion in insurance products by 2030”.
Thirty-five percent of SMEs in emerging markets are women-owned yet an estimated 10 percent have access to the capital needed to grow their businesses. “Their unmet financial needs are estimated to be a whopping $300 billion per year.”
In response, IFC is collaborating with client banks to develop financial products for women-run SMEs. “IFC has lent $1 billion to our client banks for on-lending to women-owned SMEs across the Emerging Markets, including recent investments in the Asia region,” said Kebet-Koulibaly.
As part of its Banking on Women initiative, IFC offers women entrepreneurs customized training in business planning, management, financial literacy and de-mystifying banks/credit application processes.
The institution is also looking inward to ensure it meets gender parity targets. “We committed to reach equal representation of men and women staff by 2018,” said Jingdong Hua, IFC Vice President and Treasurer. “Today 45 percent of technical professional staff and 35 percent of managers at IFC are women. We have made slow progress on this front. We need to do better.”
IFC has a Gender Secretariat to develop and support internal and external partnerships and prove the business case for gender equality. The organization has also received the first three levels of Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE) certification.
