Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Women in Business in America

Hard on the heels (no pun intended) of my posts on "Women in Business in the Middle East" and "Women in Business in Asia" comes this fascinating report from America.

According to a survey done by a group called catalyst, of Fortune 500 Companies in America, the key to a successful business lies in the employment of women.

According to an article published two months ago in the Financial Post:
"On average, companies with the highest representation of women in corporate-officer positions financially outperformed those with the lowest representation. In fact, return on equity was 35.1% higher. Total return to shareholders was 34% higher.

The numbers jumped for women serving as directors on Fortune 500 boards. On average, return on equity was 53% higher for those boards with a high representation of women than those with the least women; return on sales was 42% higher; and return on invested capital was 66% higher.

According to the most recent data from Catalyst, at the corporate-officer level in Canada, women held 15.1% of the top jobs in Canada's FP 500 companies and 12% of board seats.

This January, the third-annual Rosenzweig Report on women at the top levels of Corporate Canada found that 31 women now hold top-officer jobs in Canada's 100 largest publicly traded companies; down from 37 last year."

It's great to see women taking on roles in business that not too many years ago, were seen solely as the domain of their male counterparts.

Still more statistics - worldwide - are needed.



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