Companies admired by the public are more likely to boast greater gender diversity at the executive level, according to key insights revealed from March data released by Weber Shandwick.
Weber Shandwick’s analysis, titled the Gender Forward Pioneer index, measured the percentage of women in senior management positions at Fortune global 500 companies. Though women still comprise a small percentage of senior level leaders, the index found that companies recognized for having strong reputations are more likely to hold a higher proportion of female executives.
Using Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” rankings as a guide, the index found that companies with strong reputations boast more than twice as many women in their senior management ranks (17 percent) than companies with weaker reputations (8 percent), suggesting a correlation between a company’s reputation and the number of women it staffs on the senior level.
Currently, however, the GFP index found that gender parity is virtually nonexistent among global corporations' senior executive ranks. None of the world’s 500 largest companies ranked by revenue have senior management teams boasting an equal representation of men and women, and nearly 40 percent (37.6 percent) hold exclusively male senior leadership teams. On average, only 10.9 percent of the senior executives behind the world’s 500 most successful companies are women.
According to the GFP index, the number-one industry for women in senior management roles is general merchandisers, which holds an index of 33 percent. Some industries — diversified wholesalers, food and grocery wholesalers and shipping, temporary help and textiles companies — hold virtually no women on their senior management teams. Overall, North America has the highest proportion of women in senior management roles, where nearly two out of 10 (19 percent) of executives are women. In total, only 13 of the Fortune global 500 companies have a female CEO.
In creating the index, Weber Shandwick analyzed the senior management rosters at companies on both the Fortune global 500 and the "World’s Most Admired Companies" lists, identifing more than 8,600 current executives at companies in 36 countries. Research was conducted between November and December.
Weber Shandwick is now launching an initiative titled Women Leaders Engagement, which will utilize experts across the agency’s network of specialty practices for the purpose of raising the profiles of female executives. It will be led by Weber Shandwick global corporate practice chair Micho Spring and executive VP and Executive Equity and Engagement practice head Carol Ballock.
Detailed findings regarding Weber Shandwick’s GFP index can be found here.
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