Concerned about what it referred to as the slow pace of the race towards attaining parity in the rate of women versus men in senior management positions, global professional services and accounting company, Grand Thornton has released a report to commemorate the international women’s day titled “Pathways to Parity: 20 Years of Women in Business Insights.”
“While the percentage of women in senior management roles globally has increased from 19.4% to 33.5% over two decades, progress remains disappointingly slow with just a 1.1 percentage point increase from last year. At the current rate, parity won’t be achieved until 2053” it lamented in the report that marks two decades of devoted research into the representation of women in senior executive positions around the globe in mid-market businesses.
The report delineates three distinct avenues by which businesses can expedite their journey towards gender parity in senior management. These avenues include designating a female senior leader and a C-suite member as the respective recipients of responsibility for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I); executing an independent DE&I strategy with quantifiable objectives; and providing flexible work schedules.
Adding voice to the report, Grant and Thornton Managing Partner and CEO in Nigeria, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Ogwo, says “In today’s world, it is essential for women to be an integral part of DE& I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) leadership teams, as they bring unique perspectives, experiences, and insights that contribute to the creation of a more balanced, empathetic, and effective workplace culture.”
Others who commented on the report were Peter Bodin, CEO of Grant and Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). She says: “Our Women in Business research has been a significant contributor to the global debate on equity in the workplace for 20 years. While we’ve seen some positive change over that time, we also know that sustainable change takes an intentional effort and clear accountability from leadership at every organisation. Through the Grant Thornton International Business Report research and the pathways, we identify, we aim to give mid-market organisations a roadmap to accelerate progress and build more diverse, resilient and successful businesses.”
“Mid-market companies have the agility to drive significant change,” says Karitha Ericson, global leader of network capability and culture at Grant Thornton International Limited (GTIL). “By adopting the pathways to parity outlined in our report, achieving 50% representation of women in senior management within the next five years is within reach.”
The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR), the world’s preeminent mid-market business survey, provides information for the Women in Business (WiB) report by conducting biannual interviews with about 5,000 senior executives from listed and privately held companies across the globe.
The report, which was first released in 1992 in nine European nations, currently conducts annual polls of almost 10,000 business executives across 28 nations, offering insights into the commercial and economic concerns influencing the growth prospects of organizations worldwide.
About 5,000 chief executive officers, managing directors, chairs, and other senior decision-makers from all industrial sectors in mid-market companies across 28 countries were interviewed between October and November 2023, from which the conclusions in this research were derived.
