Report: Women Bring Measurable Financial Value to Companies

Companies with women in at least 30 percent of their leadership roles can achieve up to a 6 percent increase in net margin, according to a new report from EY and The Peterson Institute for International Economics. And EY says that diverse leadership is a critical survival tool for businesses today.

"Companies that advance women into leadership roles are going to have the upper hand, with more engaged workforces, stronger cultures, and improved economic performance,” said Mark A. Weinberger, EY's global chairman & CEO. “We know that gender-balanced companies achieve better results.”

The report, which gathered data from nearly 22,000 publicly traded companies in 91 countries, breaks down female advancement by country. It indicates that companies in the following countries have seen the most progress in gender parity: Bulgaria, Latvia, the Philippines, Slovenia, and Romania. Companies in those countries have a respective 37 percent, 36 percent, 33 percent, 33 percent, and 32 percent share of female executives, according to the report. Meanwhile, the countries with the largest shares of females on company boards include Norway, with 40 percent; Latvia, with 25 percent; Italy, with 24 percent; Finland, with 23 percent; and Bulgaria, with 22 percent.

EY and The Peterson Institute for International Economics conducted and released the results of this study just ahead of International Women’s Day, which is March 8.

EY has been active in helping address gender inequity. The company’s Women, Fast forward program works to inspire organizations to take concrete steps to advance women in the workplace. And it provides guidance for how to do that through this International Women’s Day online resource.

Speaking of women at work, INTERNET TELEPHONY in its upcoming April issue interviews Hilary Gadda, who was recently named president of Women in the Channel, an organization of which she is a founding board member. Here’s an excerpt from the conversation: “Companies with more diversity are more innovative and competitive. Studies show that the most successful companies empower women as leaders. According to the Global Leadership Forecast from DDI, companies in the top 20 percent financially have almost twice as many women in leadership roles as those in the bottom 20 percent. In fact, among top-performing companies, 30 to 40 percent of leadership positions were held by women. Educating tech executives about this is job one.”  

And the January/February issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY includes a guest column by IEEE-USA President Jim Jefferies in which he summarizes the results of his organization’s report on tech-related salaries and minority pay inequality.