Deloitte and 30% Club reveal latest global women in the boardroom stats

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Progress but it's slow

Deloitte, in collaboration with the  30% Club, today released the seventh edition of  Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective. 

It includes updates from 72 countries on representation of women in the boardroom, exploring insights on the political, social, and legislative trends behind these numbers. 

It found that nearly all countries have local organisations or governments committed to increasing the number of women serving on company boards.

While these private and public sector efforts demonstrate steps toward achieving parity, the pace of collective progress needs to pick up.

People often ask why the 30% Club is not the 50% Club given that our aim is parity. I think this report answers that question, we are still far from the 30% tipping point in many geographies

Ann Cairns, 30% Club global chair

Key higlights from the report include:

Globally, only one in five board seats are held by women           

A smaller group of women are taking on a large number of board seats – referred to as the ‘Stretch Factor’

Report reveals a disconnect between women holding roles on boards and in the executive.

Globally, only 6.7% of board chairs are women, and even fewer CEOs – 5% – are women

A global average of 19.7% of board seats are held by women, an increase of 2.8% since 2018 compared to a 1.9% increase in the period from 2016 to 2018

Companies with women CEOs have significantly more balanced boards than those with male CEOs: 33.5% vs 19.4%

Only three in 10 board seats held by women in UK behind leaders France, Norway and Italy in boardroom diversity

However, UK enters into top 10 global ranking and could reach boardroom gender parity by 2027.

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Commenting on the report, which includes commentary from 30% Club chapters, global chair Ann Cairns said: “With the FTSE 100 on the brink of attaining 40% women in board roles, I am encouraged by Deloitte Global’s finding that UK parity could be reached by 2027. 

“People often ask why the 30% Club is not the 50% Club given that our aim is parity. I think this report answers that question, we are still far from the 30% tipping point in many geographies.” 

She added: “One of the report’s most interesting findings is the real balance that female leaders bring. If women CEOs can have more balanced boards, there’s no reason that male CEOs can’t.

“Finally, on the stretch, this speaks to the fact that women have a harder time being appointed if they don’t have previous board experience. Chairs and CEOs should be encouraged to give women their first board seat. 

“There is plenty of talent out there who would make great directors. This is very true for people of colour too, many of whom would welcome the chance to make a significant contribution at the top of the corporate world but remain significantly under-represented.”

 

Sharon Thorne, Deloitte Global Board Chair and member of the 30% Club, said: “While it’s heartening to see that the world continues to make progress towards achieving gender parity, with the exception of a few countries, overall progress remains slow and uneven.

 

“The pandemic has further challenged progress in achieving equality, making it even more important to move past discussion and take concrete actions to ensure inclusion within and beyond the boardroom including gender, ethnic and racial diversity among other characteristics.”

 

She adds: “Increasing the number of women on boards is only the first step on a larger journey.”

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

CnetG Asia wins the UN Women Award in the Gender-Responsive Marketplace

Congratulations to CnetG Asia on winning the UN Women Award in the Gender-Responsive Marketplace category at the 2021 Malaysia Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards virtual ceremony recently.


Its managing partner Raj Kumar Paramanathan said “When we empower women, we empower the society, minorities and marginalised communities. The journey is challenging not because of resistance, but lack of awareness, education and measurable data on benefits to the business.


“This award underscores the two decades of efforts and silent work we have been investing in diversity and inclusion, particularly gender diversity,” he said.


Raj Kumar is a member of the steering committee at 30% Club Malaysia, a business led campaign that promotes diversity on boards. 


As a key strategic partner of the 30% Club Malaysia, CnetG Asia, an executive search and, people advisory firm, supports members with executive and board sourcing code and board profile writing masterclass for mentees of the Board Mentoring Scheme, which is one of the pillars of the 30% Club Malaysia.


“Our executive recruitment process is governed by our Diversity Statement which is a set of 5 principles that ensure an inclusive approach with gender lens to ensure a wider pool of talent are considered, eliminating unconscious bias and gender stereotyping in the decision making process. CnetG Asia engages and coaches women through the recruitment process to ensure they succeed in the career transition. We advocate these principles with our clients to support them in their diversity agenda,” he said.


United Nations Women Representative for Asia and the Pacific Sarah Knibbs, commended the efforts made in the country’s business community overall. “The surge in WEPs signatories in Malaysia over the past year is an impressive demonstration of commitment,” she said. 


“The UN Women WEPs Activator Campaign with LeadWomen is helping companies translate this commitment into action empowering women across the value chain. We are proud to celebrate the first WEP Awards in Malaysia to make these efforts visible, showcase best practices, and inspire others to act and create a more gender-inclusive world.” she added.


The Gender-responsive Marketplace category recognised corporations for embracing a gender-lens throughout their value-chains from sourcing to disposal. 


This includes championing supplier diversity, gender-inclusive distribution and selling, and gender-responsive marketing and advertising. 


It also includes supporting women entrepreneurs through capacity development or market access opportunities, implementing progressive programmes and/or policies to incentive procurement from women-owned businesses or other gender-responsive companies. 


The award was also given to companies with actions or programmes that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in advertisements and other sales and marketing activities.


Women are the most likely changemakers for climate action

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Stronger together

Diversity and climate are top priorities for CEOs and boards of directors, but almost none have considered how linking the two management priorities could accelerate their transition to net‑zero emissions.

As the Oliver Wyman Forum and the 30% Club prepared for COP26 in Glasgow, we set out to uncover what can be achieved when diversity, and specifically gender representation, is included in companies’ climate change plans.

The question was more difficult to answer than we had anticipated. For example, starting with large data sets, we looked at how corporate diversity and climate outcomes might be correlated. Relationships were positive but statistically weak. However, with so many factors at play, we felt that focusing solely on these high‑level numbers was a red herring.

As our research and interviews with more than 20 companies progressed, it became clear that not only are women often excluded from many high-level government and corporate discussions on climate, their role as climate-action changemakers is largely unrecognized and underestimated.

Yet businesses need to include female colleagues, customers, and investors if they are serious about meeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

We consider this report as just the beginning of research on what can be achieved if a greater mix of people — including women — is more explicitly included in companies’ attempts to reach net-zero emissions.

This report talks about action from corporations deliberately. Clearly, this must be taken together with action from governments, the third sector, civil society, and beyond.

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We are grateful for your understanding over this report’s limitations — for example, our focus on women in Western countries and a binary view of gender that is not inclusive of all identities and experiences.

We recognize that we do not cover intersectionality or other dimensions of difference, such as race and ethnicity, primarily due to a lack of data.

Despite this, we felt it important to continue and hope the report will have some impact in driving greater awareness and understanding of the critical linkages between these issues.

We thank and are grateful to the many colleagues who were willing to share their expertise and the companies we interviewed. We hope you find our initial research helpful as you consider your transition plans and look forward to continuing the conversation and research.

Rupal Kantaria
Partner, Oliver Wyman Forum

Ann Cairns
Global Chair, 30% Club and Executive Vice Chair, Mastercard

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries