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Asia Pacific – Women scarce in the boardroom

17 April 2015

Women have a far smaller presence in Asian boardrooms than in the West, according to a survey from executive search firm Korn Ferry and the National University of Singapore Business School, reports nikkei.com.

Among the 1,000 companies surveyed across 10 Asia-Pacific countries, women held an average of 9.4% of the corporate board seats. Although this represents an increase compared with last year’s 8%, women still remain under-represented on Asian boards, the report found.

Similar studies showed female board representation was 35.5% in Norway, 22.8% in the UK, and 19.2% in the US.

The survey covered the 100 largest listed companies by market capitalisation in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea.

Women had the strongest presence in Australia with 18.6%, New Zealand, (13.6%), and China (13.2%).

At the other end of the spectrum were South Korea with 2.1% and Japan with 3.1% of board seats occupied by women. These two countries also had the fewest female directors; with 84% of South Korean companies and 68% of Japanese companies having all-male boards.

The study also produced findings that suggested that a better gender balance is also good for business. With the exception of Malaysia, the report found that return on equity at companies whose boards were composed of at least 10% women were 3.6% higher on average.