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Women and gender
BusinessChina Business

International Women’s Day: female leadership in Asia-Pacific businesses is shrinking as flexible working arrangements are dismantled, Grant Thornton says

  • ‘Advancement in the representation of women in senior management within the mid-market sector has been disappointingly slow,’ Grant Thornton’s Mabel Chan says
  • Flexible working arrangements also crucial for Hong Kong, which is trying to address shortages in its labour market

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Companies should re-evaluate decisions linked to return-to-office arrangements and appoint senior female leaders to spearhead and oversee gender-equality strategies, Grant Thornton’s Chan suggests. Photo: Shutterstock Images
Zhang Shidongin Shanghai
Senior female business leadership in the Asia-Pacific region has been shrinking this year and is lagging behind other parts of the world, with the lack of flexible working in the post-Covid era posing a hindrance to gender parity, global advisory firm Grant Thornton International said.
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The proportion of women holding senior management positions in mid-market businesses in the region has dropped to 31 per cent this year, one percentage point lower than 2023, the firm said in a report released on Friday. Latin America leads the world with a representation of 36 per cent, it added.

Grant Thornton defines mid-market businesses as those with annual revenue between US$5 million and US$500 million in mainland China, and those with sales between US$100 million and US$4 billion annually in the United States. In Europe, employers with a staff of 50 to 500 fall into this category.

“The advancement in the representation of women in senior management within the mid-market sector has been disappointingly slow,” said Mabel Chan, deputy managing partner at Grant Thornton’s Hong Kong office. “We urge businesses to proactively take concrete measures to hasten progress towards gender parity.”

These findings are significant because flexible working arrangements will be crucial for Hong Kong, where the Legislative Council has approved a bill aimed at encouraging more people to join the workforce to ease shortages in the labour market, according to flexible office spaces provider IWG.
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The Grant Thornton report is based on the conclusions of a survey of about 5,000 mid-market companies in 28 countries between October and December last year. The survey found that the trend of return to office had deprived women of flexible working arrangements, a key element empowering female corporate leadership.

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