NZ Women In Senior Management Ahead Of Australia

New Zealand Women In Senior Management Ahead Of Australia, Global Average

- but scope for proportion to grow

New Zealand businesses rank well ahead of Australia and the global average in the proportion of women in senior management positions, according to new findings released today from the Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey (IBOS).

Even so, while 70% of New Zealand businesses have women in senior management, women occupy less than one-third (31%) of senior management posts on average.

While 70% of Australian businesses also have women in senior management, the proportion of women in senior management posts is only 22% in that country.

Globally, 59% of businesses include women in senior management, but women occupy less than a fifth (19%) of the senior management positions available.

IBOS is a survey of 6,900 medium-sized businesses from 26 countries worldwide. The New Zealand sample of 150 businesses has been included in survey for the first time.

Commenting on the results, Grant Thornton New Zealand spokesperson Margaret Fisher, chief executive of Grant Thornton in Auckland, said: "Knowing the New Zealand business sector as we do, we are not surprised at the number of New Zealand businesses that can say they have at least one woman in senior management. What is of more interest is the actual proportion of senior management that they comprise on average. While in New Zealand it cannot be said that senior management is a male preserve, clearly there is still scope for a better gender balance and penetration of the overall ranks of senior managers by women.

"The high proportion of companies which have women in senior management means that the so-called glass ceiling has been removed in most cases, but relatively not a lot of women have either taken, or can take, advantage of that."

New Zealand ranks ninth equal with Australia in the proportion of companies that have at least one woman in senior management. It ranks fourth equal, alongside Taiwan, in terms of women as a percentage of the total in senior management. Ahead of it are Russia, the Philippines and Poland, and Australia is 11th equal.

Asia-Pacific countries rate well in both measures, with the exception of Japan, where only 29% of companies have women in senior management and, on average, women make up only 8% of the senior management team. The Netherlands is another country that does not rate well on either count.

At the other end of the scale, Russia has 89% of companies saying they have women in senior management, and on average 42% of management posts held by women.

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