Why are we still talking about it being a phenomenon for females to be appointed to the most senior leadership positions?

Like many people, one of the first things I do in the morning is check the headlines to see what shi….is hitting the fan today. I was a little surprised to find one of the top stories was about the ‘startling news’ of Japanese Airlines (JAL) appointing a woman to the role of CEO. Really? On checking the story, I discovered the reason for this breaking news story was not just that the incumbent - the excellent Mitsuko Tottori - was not only the first female CEO to be appointed to the role, but also that she started her career at JAL as a flight attendant. Cries of ‘Is there a Doctor on board’ could be heard across boardrooms and market leaders everywhere it seems. But why is this appointment so unusual that one website described the appointment as "an alien molecule" or "a mutant"?. "I didn't know about an alien mutant," Ms Tottori laughs as she spoke to the media from Tokyo.

There are several reasons why the appointment of a woman to the CEO position at JAL is still unusual in the corporate world and here are a few of them:

Historical Gender Bias: Traditionally, leadership positions in corporations have been dominated by men. This creates a sense of normalcy around male CEOs, while female CEOs are seen as outliers.

Lack of Role Models: With fewer women in senior leadership roles, there are fewer role models for aspiring female executives. This can make it harder for them to envision themselves achieving such positions.

Unconscious Bias: Even with conscious efforts towards equality, unconscious biases can still play a role in the selection process. Decision-makers might subconsciously favor candidates who resemble the current leadership (typically male) or possess traditionally "masculine" leadership traits.

Work-Life Balance Challenges: The demands of senior leadership positions can be particularly challenging for women who are often expected to shoulder a greater share of childcare and domestic responsibilities. This can make them hesitate to pursue such demanding careers.

Pipeline Problem: Fewer women may be entering fields that typically lead to CEO positions. This creates a smaller pool of qualified female candidates to choose from.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The appointment of Mitsuko Tottori to CEO at JAL is a significant step forward. However, it's just one example. More such appointments are needed to truly break down the barriers that prevent women from reaching the top echelons of corporate leadership.

Looking Forward:

The appointment of Mitsuko Tottori is a positive development for gender equality in the corporate world. However, it also highlights the ongoing challenges women face in reaching leadership positions. By acknowledging these challenges and working towards solutions, we can create a more level playing field for women to achieve their full potential. It's important to note that the percentage of female CEOs in the FTSE may fluctuate slightly depending on the source and the specific timeframe used. However, the data consistently shows a significant underrepresentation of women in these top leadership positions;

As of 2022, the percentage of women CEOs in the top 250 FTSE companies was around 4.8% the S&P 500 (US) says there are around 8.2%* Equilar Gender Diversity Index 2023: the DAX (Germany) says ithe percentage is around 6.3%* while the Allbright Stiftung - Diversity Report 2023 says the Nikkei 225 (Japan) stands below 3%* Nikkei Women Empowerment Index: (This tracks companies with high female leadership representation, but doesn't reflect the overall percentage of female CEOs in the Nikkei 225)

In it’s 2023 report, the World Economic Forum identified specific gaps across all areas of daily life, as follows:

Evolving gender gaps in the global labour market

The state of gender parity in the labour market remains a major challenge. Not only has women’s participation in the labour market globally slipped in recent years, but other markers of economic opportunity have been showing substantive disparities between women and men. While women have (re-)entered the labour force at higher rates than men globally, leading to a small recovery in gender parity in the labour-force participation rate since the 2022 edition, gaps remain wide overall and are apparent in several specific dimensions.

- Evolving gender gaps in the global labour market: Women have been (re-)entering the workforce at a slightly higher rate than men, resulting in a modest recovery from last year’s low. Between the 2022 and 2023 edition, parity in the labour-force participation rate increased from 63% to 64%. However, the recovery in women’s labour-force participation remains unfinished, as parity is still at the second-lowest point since the first edition of the index in 2006 and significantly below its 2009 peak of 69%. Compounding these patterns, women continue to face higher unemployment rates than men, with a global unemployment rate at around 4.5% for women and 4.3% for men. Even when women secure employment, they often face substandard working conditions: a significant portion of the recovery in employment since 2020 can be attributed to informal employment, whereby out of every five jobs created for women, four are within the informal economy; for men, the ratio is two out of every three jobs.

- Workforce representation across industries: Global data provided by LinkedIn shows persistent skewing in women’s representation in the workforce and leadership across industries. In LinkedIn’s sample, which covers 163 countries, women account for 41.9% of the workforce in 2023, yet the share of women in senior leadership positions (Director, Vice-President (VP) or C-Suite) is at 32.2% in 2023, nearly 10 percentage points lower. Women’s representation drops to 25% in C-Suite positions on average, which is just more than half of the representation in entry-level positions, at 46%. Different industries display different intensities and patterns when it comes to this “drop to the top”. Women fare relatively better in industries such as Consumer Services, Retail, and Education, which register ratios of C-suite vs entry level representation between 64% and 68%. Construction, Financial Services, and Real Estate present the toughest conditions for aspiring female leaders, with a ratio of C-Suite to entry-level representation of less than 50%. For the past eight years, the proportion of women hired into leadership positions has been steadily increasing by about 1% per year globally. However, this trend shows a clear reversal starting in 2022, which brings the 2023 rate back to 2021 levels.

- Gender gaps in the labour markets of the future: Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations are an important set of jobs that are well remunerated and expected to grow in significance and scope in the future. Linkedin data on members’ job profiles show that women remain significantly underrepresented in the STEM workforce. Women make up almost half (49.3%) of total employment across non-STEM occupations, but just 29.2% of all STEM workers. While the percentage of female STEM graduates entering into STEM employment is increasing with every cohort, the numbers on the integration of STEM university graduates into the labour market show that the retention of women in STEM even one year after graduating sees a significant drop. Women currently account for 29.4% of entry-level workers; yet for high-level leadership roles such as VP and C-suite, representation drops to 17.8% and 12.4%, respectively. When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) specifically, talent availability overall has surged, increasing six times between 2016 and 2022, yet female representation in AI is progressing very slowly. The percentage of women working in AI today is approximately 30%, roughly 4 percentage points higher than it was in 2016.

- Gender gaps in the skills of the future: Online learning offers flexibility, accessibility and customization, enabling learners to acquire knowledge in a manner that suits their specific needs and circumstances. However, women and men currently do not have equal opportunties and access to these online platforms, given the persistent digital divide. Even when they do use these platforms, there are gender gaps in skilling, especially those skills that are projected to grow in importance and demand. Data from Coursera suggests that as of 2022, except for teaching and mentoring courses, there is disparity in enrolment in every skill category. For enrolment in technology skills such as technological literacy (43.7% parity) and AI and big data (33.7%), which are among the top 10 skills projected to grow, there is less than 50% parity and progress has been sluggish. Across all skill categories, the gender gaps tend to widen as proficiency levels increase. However, when women do enrol, they tend to attain most proficiency levels across skill categories studied in less time compared to men.

- Gender gaps in political leadership: Much like in the case of representation of women in business leadership, gender gaps in political leadership continue to persist. Although there has been an increase in the number of women holding political decision-making posts worldwide, achieving gender parity remains a distant goal and regional disparities are significant. As of 31 December 2022, approximately 27.9% of the global population, equivalent to 2.12 billion people, live in countries with a female head of state. While this indicator experienced stagnation between 2013 and 2021, 2022 witnessed a significant increase. Another recent positive trend is observed for the share of women in parliaments. In 2013, only 18.7% of parliament members globally were women among the 76 countries with consistent data. By 2022, this number had risen steadily to 22.9%. Significant strides have also been made in terms of women’s representation in local government globally. Out of the 117 countries with available data since 2017, 18 countries, including Bolivia (50.4%), India (44.4%) and France (42.3%), have achieved representation of women of over 40% in local governance.

- DEI programmes to close gender gaps: In the private sector, the scope of gender parity action by pioneering firms has begun to broaden from a focus on the workforce to whole-of-business approaches encompassing inclusive design, inclusive supply chains and community impact. The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Survey suggests that more than two-thirds of the organizations surveyed have implemented a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programme. The majority (79%) of companies surveyed are implementing DEI programmes with a focus on women.

Increasing women’s economic participation and achieving gender parity in leadership, in both business and government, are two key levers for addressing broader gender gaps in households, societies and economies. Collective, coordinated and bold action by private- and public- sector leaders will be instrumental in accelerating progress towards gender parity and igniting renewed growth and greater resilience. Recent years have seen major setbacks and the state of gender parity still varies widely by company, industry and economy. Yet, a growing number of actors have recognized the importance and urgency of taking action, and evidence on effective gender parity initiatives is solidifying. We hope the data and analysis provided in this report can further accelerate the speed of travel towards parity by catalysing and informing action by public- and private-sector leaders in their efforts to close the global gender gap.