‘More CEOs named John than there were women in total’

By Louise Taylor, Director - Head of Financial Institutions Group, Corporate Banking, Barclays Asia Pacific

The New York Times’ Glass Ceiling Index of S&P 1500 CEOs found there were more CEOs named John than there were women [CEOs] in total.

One of the constant cries heard around corporate board room tables is that there aren’t enough qualified women available for the Chairman to consider appointing to the board. To which my riposte would be “How hard have you really looked?”

The debate on women in leadership needs now to shift from why it is important to have greater gender diversity at senior levels, to focusing on how we ensure that there is a strong pipeline of women in executive and non-executive roles coming through organisations.

The why – for those of you who still need persuading – is that gender diversity is good for the overall effectiveness of the boardroom, and is therefore good for business.

In a 2010 a McKinsey report, part of their “Women Matter” initiative, found that corporations with women on their executive committee showed better financial performance.

Average return on equity for companies in the top quartile in their sector for women on executive committees was 41% higher between 2007 and 2009 than for companies with no women on the committee, the report said. Average earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin was 56% higher.

“The big benefit is that the research shows that companies that have diverse boards outperform those companies that don’t. It’s very much a bottom-line issue,”

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, Chair and Co-Founder of 2020 Women on Boards. What’s preventing women attaining leadership roles? The Women’s Foundation , a Hong Kong-based organisation that works to challenge gender stereotypes, reviewing a 2015 Grant Thornton report, highlighted that women’s advancement in the workplace is constrained by a number of factors, from entrenched social norms and gender bias, to parenthood and archaic business practices.

How do we ensure that these constraints are properly addressed in organisations, and in financial services more specifically?

• A first step is to have a target at both the Board and the senior executive l level.• A second is to have gender representation metrics firmly embedded in each business line with accountability for compliance.• Ensure graduate level intake has a 50/50 gender split• Focus on women’s development programmes, including supporting women in identifying mentors and sponsors

That’s why implementing a training programme for all hiring managers on unconscious bias is a critical component of addressing the “how”. And insist that recruiters and head-hunters present diverse candidate slates, and ensure that all senior level candidates are interviewed by both men and women.

One shibboleth that needs to be firmly kicked into the long grass is that women need “fixing”.

A review of your work place practices – for both men and women – can be illuminating. How inclusive is your workplace environment – how much air time and profile are the women getting who don’t follow the men out to the golf course, to the soccer or the bar? Are you inadvertently fostering a forgotten generation of talented women by writing women off after having children? Have you got a decent paternity leave policy? When it comes to career mobility are you asking the right questions – don’t assume that just because a woman has a partner she isn’t interested in moving to another country in order to advance her career. I’m a prime example of this. I moved to Singapore last year to take up my role and my husband walked away from his job, in order to prioritise mine.

Finally, at the senior level, consider whether you could provide board training for your female executives, either in-house as we do at Barclays in the UK, or by signing up for one of the board training courses offered by a number of organisations.

Personally, I am not a big fan of quotas as, like so many of my female colleagues, I want to know that I have achieved success in my career not because of my gender, but because of my skills and what I have achieved. But the “Why” debate has gone on for too long, and unless collectively we address the “How”, then many more Western governments are likely to impose quotas by regulation. Board representation by diktat is not the solution.

This topic will be discussed in detail on Tuesday 13 October at the Sibos workshop ‘ Reframing the debate: Shattering the mirrortocracy’