(BN) Men in Finance Have ‘Reprehensible’ Dominance: Chart of the
Day
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Men in Finance Have ‘Reprehensible’ Dominance: Chart of the Day
2012-01-31 00:01:00.2 GMT
By Simon Clark
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Finance is the most lopsided
industry in the MSCI World Index when it comes to appointing
women as directors and promoting them to management positions,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows how banks, insurers and asset
managers in the index of stocks in 24 markets have a
disproportionately low percentage of female board members
compared with employees, 51 percent of whom are women. Finance
also scores lowest in matching the percentages of women workers
and managers. The materials sector, including mining companies,
does best in balancing its female workforce and directors,
though in that industry just 18 percent of employees are women.
It’s “reprehensible for an industry to have a high level of
women employees and a low level of women in management and on
the board,” said Joe Keefe, chief executive officer of
Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Pax World Management LLC and
chairman of the nonprofit Women Thrive Worldwide. “It is
evidence of failure to hire, to promote, to retain and to mentor
the women.”
Women are frequently overlooked for promotion and receive
less mentoring and sponsorship than male peers, according to a
report last year by Mervyn Davies, former CEO of Standard
Chartered Plc in London. The relatively low number of successful
female role models often compounds stereotypes, according to the
report, commissioned by the U.K. government.
Helena Morrissey, CEO of Newton Investment Management Ltd.,
in London and founder of the 30 Percent Club, which seeks to
boost women’s numbers on boards, called the disparity between
women employees and directors “rather patronizing.”
The chart is based on the 455 companies in the index of
more than 1,600 stocks that disclose information on the number
of women employees and directors.
For Related News and Information:
Women in the news: NI WOMEN
Management Change in the News: NI MGMT
Charts, graphs home page: CHART
Environmental, social and governance data: ESG
–With assistance from Barbara Evans in London. Editors: Anne
Reifenberg, Sheldon Reback
To contact the reporter on this story:
Simon Clark in London at +44-20-7673-2059 or
[email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Melissa Pozsgay at +33-1-5365-5056 or
[email protected]