As today marks the World Women’s Day, an EY report shows that only 5 percent (25) women are in board executive positions of the largest 200 utilities by revenue, globally.
According to the report entitled, ‘EY’s Women in Power and Utilities Index 2016,’ gender parity progress is slow in the global power and utilities sector, with the number of women in board positions rising just one in the last three years.
The research report also shows women occupy just 19 percent of non-executive board positions and 14 percent of senior management team (SMT) roles. The proportion of women in SMT roles was the only statistic to increase each year from 12 percent in 2014 and 13 percent in 2015.
The Index’s global list of the top 20 most gender-diverse Power and Utilities (P&Us) places Eskom at sixth place. In addition, the list of the top 200 P&U companies with the most gender diverse workforces in the Africa and Middle East region also places Eskom at sixth place and Mozambique’s Electricidade de Moçambique at 53rd.
With 345 women out of a total of 2,149 positions (16%) currently in board roles, it will take 515 more women appointed to reach just 40 percent representation, says the report. To grow from the existing 5 percent women in board executive roles to 10 percent requires another 24 women to be appointed.
Regionally, the Americas have the highest percentage of female board executives (led by Latin America with nine percent), followed closely by Europe (seven percent), with Africa and Middle East at 6 percent. These regions also top the list for the percentage of women in non-executive board roles. Asia-Pacific had the lowest percentage of women board executives at just three percent.
Claire Lawrie, EY Africa Energy Lead said: “Women in leadership is a business issue. It is not just a female issue – given that diversity is linked to company performance. More companies should start measuring and reporting on gender diversity in leadership.”
“At the current rate of progress, the advancement of women will not happen anytime soon. P&U companies must address the things that are frustrating the achievement of better diversity in boardrooms – especially as our research shows that the most gender-diverse companies outperformed the least gender-diverse companies by 14.8 percent on return on equity,” Lawrie continued.
In these times of disruptive change, as the sector undergoes fundamental transformation, diverse leadership teams make good business sense. While diversity comes in many forms beyond gender, getting women into leadership is an obvious starting point for P&Us.
Therefore, putting gender higher up on a companies’ agenda makes good business sense, and the end result will be a better working world for all.”
Norman B. Ndaba, EY Power & Utilities Sector Leader says, “Ensuring that women are present at the boardroom table is an important starting point for utilities. Board executives are where the greatest influence and decision-making power on a board reside. They are the people running the assets. For women to make real inroads into the business of P&Us, they must be represented among board executives. It is unfortunate that, with the pace currently adopted, it will take 72 years to reach 40 percent women on boards in the P&U sector. That’s too long.”
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