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27% of management positions in Singapore held by women: Survey

SINGAPORE — The Republic lags behind some other Asian countries surveyed when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace, according to the latest 2015 Hays Asia Salary Guide released yesterday (Mar 1).

SINGAPORE — The Republic lags behind some other Asian countries surveyed when it comes to gender diversity in the workplace, according to the latest 2015 Hays Asia Salary Guide released yesterday (Mar 1).

The survey was conducted by the recruitment company across five countries in Asia — China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. Hays said 2,361 organisations, representing about four million employees, took part in the survey.

The survey found 27 per cent of management positions in Singapore are held by women, said Hays in a media release today. The number is unchanged year-on-year, and Singapore held the second lowest number of positions among the five countries surveyed.

China remains the region’s top “diversity leader”, with 36 per cent of management roles held by women. Following closely behind is Malaysia at 33 per cent — an increase from 29 per cent in 2014. Hong Kong was the only country that saw a drop in numbers, from 33 per cent in 2014 to 31 per cent in 2015, according to the release.

“Japan is still falling behind in the diversity stakes, with women in the country filling just 19 per cent of management positions,” Hays said. “Critically, this is up from 15 per cent one year prior.”

As a whole, the percentage of management positions held by women across the five countries increased slightly this year, from 28 per cent in 2014 to 29 per cent this year.

“It seems remarkable in this day and age, given all the research espousing the benefits of a gender diverse workforce, that women are not equally represented in leadership positions, and supported and encouraged to reach their career goals,” said Ms Christine Wright, Managing Director of Hays in Asia.

Alluding to the theme of International Women’s Day 2015, “Make It Happen”, Ms Wright said that to make gender equality happen, there “needs to be more workplaces that embrace flexible working practices, highlight female role models, change organisational policy in support of gender diversity, and give better board backing for diversity issues”.

She also suggested organisations to put performance-related promotional policies in place.

“This ensures that people are promoted based on their performance alone. It also helps build a culture of meritocracy and helps to remove unconscious bias from the decision making process,” she said. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

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