According to the international organization of labour (ILO) report entitled « BUSINESSWOMEN and professional women: A rise » in 80 of 108 countries for which data are available, the proportion of women leaders has increased over the past 20 years.
« Our research shows that the always higher activity rate of women has been the main driver of competitiveness and global growth, » said the Director of the Bureau for employers in ILO activities, Deborah France-Massin, in a press release in Geneva, on the occasion of the publication of the report.
For Ms. France-Massin, a growing number of studies show also the positive correlation between the participation of women in the teams and governing structures and performance of companies. « But much still remains to be done before achieving full equality between men and women in the workplace, especially when it comes to management positions, » she added.
The ILO report also reveals that only 5% of the CEOs of the largest global corporations are women. More business is great; it is rare that it be headed by a woman.
In companies, boards of Directors fully male are commonplace but their number is decreasing, women to reach 20% or more of the seats in some countries. A global survey cited by the study shows that the Norway holds the largest proportion of companies (13.3%) having a woman to the Presidency of their governing body, followed by the Turkey (11.1%).
The Manager of the Office of activities for employers in ILO, Deborah France-Massin, stressed that invisible barriers remain with the concentration of women in certain types of managerial capacity as HR, communication and administration, it is essential that more women reach senior management positions in strategic areas to form a pool of possible candidates to the most senior positions as CEO or presidents of companies.