Gender inequality persists in top jobs, researches show
The Hindu
Despite progress, women remain underrepresented in top business roles globally, with slow progress towards gender equality.
More women are taking top management jobs but inequality persists, with men still dominating business leadership roles, research showed ahead of International Women's Day on March 8.
Despite some high-profile exceptions and laws helping to boost quotas for women board members and executives, it remains a slow march to the top.
A survey published last week by Equileap, which researches data on diversity, found only 7% of CEOs and 17% of finance directors in big companies in developed countries were women.
"The battle for gender equality remains ongoing," said Equileap's CEO Diana van Maasdijk.
A 2023 report by the World Economic Forum noted that "women's share of senior and leadership roles has seen a steady global increase over the past five years," with the proportion of women hired into leadership roles rising from just over 33%in 2016 to nearly 37% in 2022.
But the overall figures for women's representation at companies show they are still in a minority at the top level.
"Work structures have been built up over the last 200 years to accommodate men's needs," said Tara Cemlyn-Jones, the CEO of 25x25, a non-profit organisation that aims to improve the gender balance in executive leadership roles.
Political economist Parakala Prabhakar has described the exit poll results as “fudged figures”, saying that those would benefit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) only. “False predictions were given with the sole objective of helping the NDA in rigging during the counting,” alleged Mr. Prabhakar, after releasing a book titled ‘Avineeti Chakravarthi Narendra Modi’ penned by former Minister Vadde Shobanadreeswara Rao, here, on June 2 (Sunday).