UNDP administrator Helen Clark on advancing women into leadership

Pointing out that companies that include women in decision-making give better results than those which do not, United Nations Development Programme administrator Helen Clark urged companies to break barriers in the way of women development.

Clark recently hosted a panel discussion on Global Centre of Public Service Excellence in Singapore, where in her inaugural lecture, she stated that amongst all the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, only one third of the senior managers were women. She added that 38 companies amongst the top 100 in Europe, and 71 amongst the top 100 in Asia; had no women in their executive management teams.

The former Prime Minister of New Zealand, to prove her previous argument, talked about a research that studied nine women lead companies in India and revealed that these companies performed better than the thirty leading firms on the Bombay Stock Exchange during 2004-2009. She concluded the argument by saying, “Thus the economic case for women’s equal participation and decision-making in the private sector can certainly be made… Gender equality is not just the right thing to do, but also the smart, economic thing to do.”

New Zealand's Women's Weekly>

According to Clark, the private corporate sector is the “last bastion of male dominance of top positions.” While addressing an audience of 120 people, she stated that only 8.3% of all the Singapore listed companies, had women in senior leadership roles. A Member of Parliament (Singapore), Dr Intan Mokhtar told Eco-Business that the country needs to take many more steps to establish gender equality at the workplace.

Clark said that flexibility is one of the key factors that would help advance women at work. She added that people needed to change their mindsets and said that employers should understand that it’s all about the bottom line. She also said that if legalization comes into the picture it could work as a double edged sword and instead more dialogue should be encouraged with these companies.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Eco-Business

http://www.eco-business.com/news/businesses-women-leadership-roles-do-better/