Putting gender parity on today's business agenda

WOMEN have come a long way since the 1960s when they began to enter the workforce and fought for a position in the workplace. In spite of the progress being made, more has to be done before gender becomes truly inconsequential and taken out of the equation when it comes to equal opportunities in business leadership positions.

At present, women are still under-represented across the Asia-Pacific region. McKinsey & Co's Women Matter report reveals that the proportion of women in executive roles and sitting on boards in Asia is low relative to Europe and America, even though women are also under-represented in those regions. On average, women account for 6 per cent of seats on corporate boards and 8 per cent of those on executive committees in Asia. In Singapore, the female representation on boards stands at 7 per cent and 15 per cent on executive committees. In another report, Singapore is said to be one of the worst performing countries in the region when it comes to gender parity.

And while close to 70 per cent of industry leaders believe that there will be gender parity on their respective boards within the next 25 years, only 13 per cent see a sizeable increase to the number of women in leadership roles within the next five years. Clearly, there's still a lot of work to be done.