Women in Thailand show highest progress in business leadership

Yet, although Thailand jumped 20.4 index points to 62.7 in 2015, the majority of women in other markets in the Asia Pacific are lagging behind in business leadership despite their educational qualifications.

Although women in Asia Pacific are increasingly more educated than their male counterparts, progress towards gender parity is sluggish for most markets in the areas of business leadership, business ownership and political participation, said the survey.

“Study after study shows how public and private sector companies – and their bottom lines – benefit from having more women in leadership. In fact, companies with more women in leadership outperform those who do not, so the male dominance of leadership roles should be concerning. In a highly competitive global market, companies are beginning to understand why integrating talented women into leadership structures is imperative for sustainable economic growth and innovation in both developed and developing markets,” said Georgette Tan, group head, Communications, Asia Pacific, MasterCard.  

The survey focuses on three main indicators which are derived from additional sub- indicators: Employment (Workforce Participation, Regular Employment), Capability (Secondary Education, Tertiary Education) and Leadership (Business Owners, Business Leaders, Political leaders). 

 The survey found that there is a strong correlation in Thailand between tertiary education attainment and business leadership (123.6 for tertiary education; 62.7 for business leaders). Out of the 16 Asia Pacific markets surveyed, women in 10 markets outnumber men in tertiary education gross enrolment rate, including the Philippines (130.8 for tertiary education; 92.5 for business leaders) and New Zealand (146.3 for tertiary education; 70.2 for business leaders). Thailand is among five markets, including New Zealand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, which had a score of 100.0 for Capability, indicating that women are on par or better represented in secondary and tertiary institutions than their male counterparts.

 Despite these scores, Thailand recorded the largest decline in Index score overall (59.4, down 7.2 index points from H1 2014). Across the region, New Zealand had the highest overall Index score of 77, followed by Australia (76.0), the Philippines (72.6) and Singapore (70.5). Thailand showed the greatest decline while Singapore had the largest improvement (70.5, up 0.4 index points from H1 2014). On the other hand, India (44.2), Bangladesh (44.6), and Sri Lanka (46.2) had scores below 50, indicating that much more needs to be done to achieve gender parity.

Leadership remains the weakest component from the previous year, the survey said.

Thai women showed the greatest progress, while New Zealand (50.6) and the Philippines (50.1) are the only two markets with more than 50 women business owners/ business leaders/ government leaders for every 100 male business owners/ business leaders/ government leaders. 

Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia showed the most marked advancement in women’s leadership since 2007, gaining 12.2, 8.7 and 7.5 index points, respectively.

Business ownership among Singaporean women has also made commendable progress over the last nine years, with the proportion of female-to-male business owners increasing from 29.9 in 2007 to 42.1.

Filipino women have exceled the most in politics with the ratio of female-to-male politicians doubling from 18.2 in 2007 to 37.3 in 2015.

 The results show that employment remains the second strongest component over the nine year period from 2007 to 2015.

With the exception of Indonesia (78.4) and Malaysia (75.9), women across the majority of markets in Asia Pacific are making progress towards becoming as economically active as their male counterparts, scoring above the 80-point mark for Employment.

Four markets score higher than 90 index points for Employment: New Zealand (91.3), China (91.2), Australia (90.8) and Taiwan (90.2).