In Asia, higher female representation in management provides the most meaningful results, positively impacting profitability, efficiency, and innovation, a Bank of America report on the occasion of International Women’s Day has highlighted.
Since 2010, the stocks with higher female representation in management have outperformed their less diverse counterparts by 26% on a 3-year basis, the report said. According to it, Asia is home to 2.4 billion women, but despite this huge talent pool, women comprise only 25% of management roles and 16% of board members in the Asia Pacific.
In 2021, nearly 18% of companies in the Asia Pacific disclosed gender diversity information of their management team. This information indicates that the proportion of female managers has increased from 20% to 25%. However, little progress has been made since 2016, when the percentage of female managers first approached the 25% threshold. Companies in the top quintile for the proportion of female managers outperformed their bottom quintile peers across 1, 2, 3, and 5-year periods.
Across 5 years, returns on stocks in the top quintile outperformed by 23%.
Since 2010, the percentage of corporates in the Asia Pacific reporting on gender diversity among board members has increased from 20% to more than 60% in 2021. Less than 18% of board members in the Asia Pacific were women as of then, up just 6% since 2010. Despite impressive growth in reporting and transparency over the last decade, Asian companies have a long way to go.