The FINANCIAL — Georgia needs to empower more women in business as women’s economic contributions are vital for developing countries like Georgia, say professors from Tbilisi State University and Rotterdam School of Management.
Economies in Eastern Europe (37%) and Southeast Asia (35%) lead the way in terms of women in leadership, according to Grant Thornton International Business Report 2014. Globally, Russia (43%) has the highest proportion of women in senior management, says the report. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe, the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia (39%), Georgia, Armenia (both 35%) and Poland (34%) are all well above the global average.
“This can be traced back to the promotion of women in the former Soviet Union. The communist leaders promised ‘equal opportunity for all’, best demonstrated through the promotion of women in the rapidly expanding services sectors, such as health, education and accountancy,” is written in the report.
“Companies are always looking for ways to increase their profits. Now, a growing number of consultants and corporate leaders swear by a new strategy to boost the bottom line, one that departs from the standard bag of tricks – putting more women in charge,” said Dr Eka Sepashvili, Associate Professor, Tbilisi State University, Economics and Business Faculty.
“One of the most reliable ways to ensure high levels of income and to raise resource efficiency is to increase human resource efficiency. Human resources are characterized not only by education, but also by gender dimensions. In this regard, women’s economic contributions are vital and the ability to realize the full labour potential of women in the national economy is decisive to meet the challenge of attracting highly qualified employees to compete in international markets. Unfortunately, few nations and companies recognize the significance and potential that women hold. Georgia should understand that bringing more women into business will be very useful for developing its economy,” she added.
“All countries, including Georgia, need to continue moving away from the gender stereotypes to embrace more gender-equilibrated societies and the leadership in setting this path must involve governments as ‘front and centre’ players,” said Dianne Bevelander, Leadership Development Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, teaching on the Global OneMBA Programme.
“Women tend to be more relationship-oriented and more nurturing, according to some research. Many attribute this to the fact that they are mothers and the primary caregivers for children and for elderly parents. While this is an ongoing debate, studies do show that companies with more women on boards tend to do better,” she added.
In 166 of Georgian public institutions in total 74,532 persons are employed, 71% of them are men and 29% women, according to the research conducted by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) in 2013. The average monthly salary of women is 50% lower than that of men.
As for statistical information of employees in top positions, according to the information requested from the IDFI, there are 9,250 persons employed at those positions, 78% of them are men and 21% – women.
The Government is responsible for supporting the availability of employment to both genders, according to the “Law of gender equality” adopted in 2010. It is allowable to put employees in unequal conditions depending on the working specificity, says the same law.
That is the reason for the gender imbalance in Georgian public institutions, defines the IDFI. In particular, the 66% rate of men employed in the public sector is induced by their great number in the forces structures. For instance, in institutions such as the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Intelligence and others, there are in total employed 39,637 persons, and 86% are men while only 13% are women.
“My perception is that Georgia still has strong patriarchal tendencies but that there is a growing tendency towards more gender balance. However, in common with many other developed and developed economy countries, real progress will require that larger enterprise take the issue to heart and, importantly, that government lead the way through example and legislation,” Dianne Bevelander said.
“Northern countries such as Sweden and Denmark are doing a much better job of supporting women professionally, and not just in business. They offer good and flexible working conditions that meet the needs of diverse engagement. Nevertheless, this certainly does not mean that the countries in Northern Europe are perfectly gender-balanced societies. Rather they have made great progress and have gender discrimination policies in place, of which people are respectful.
“Women are every bit as important as men across the full spectrum of society-business, government, not-for profit enterprise, and civil society. If you exclude women from the talent pool in any sector, you exclude half of the population, which is ridiculous. This is further compounded by the fact that you are excluding a crucial element of diversity as well as a lot of highly intelligent people who can contribute to innovation and development.
“As women realize they are responsible for 70 percent of consumer spending, they begin to appreciate how much power they have. Transforming our societies into being more gender-equitable requires that women use this power far more than they have thus far.
“I do not believe that any of us are born thinking that women are the weaker sex – this is a society-induced construct with business, politics, religion and the media explicitly and implicitly stating that a woman’s role is to stay at home and cook and look after the young. None of us can have any doubt that some influential sections of the media and society suggest that the most important thing for a woman is to be thin and pretty. We have to show the error and shameful bias in this view and show that women can be anything they want to be – they can run companies or countries for that matter. All countries, including Georgia, need to continue moving away from the gender stereotypes to embrace more gender-equilibrated societies and the leadership in setting this path must involve governments as “front and centre” players,” she added.
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“At the moment we see very high proportions of women in accounting, human resources and the healthcare sector. The ongoing challenge is to get far more women of talent into STEM careers.”
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Q. European Union companies may soon be forced to favour women over equally-qualified men for supervisory board seats after EU lawmakers backed draft rules that would impose a 40 percent quota for female directors. Should developing economies such as Georgia, who are not affected by this decision, take similar steps?
A. The issue of quotas is an extremely complex one. I certainly see the merit of quotas as an early stage forcing function. However, for developing economies such as Georgia, the most important thing is not to get women on boards immediately, but how to get women in the pipeline and keep them there – how to train the next generation and stimulate them to want to aspire to senior leadership positions in far greater numbers. Board Quota systems can support this but they need to follow access.
A key driver of economic growth is innovation. Innovation comes from the transformation of creative ideas into useful and valued products and services. Creativity thrives in the presence of diversity – bright minds with differing perspectives focusing on a problem, challenge, or opportunity. Increased engagement by talented women will provide exactly this type of stimulus to enhance creativity and innovation.
Having gender balance within a company reflects the society which is made up of both genders. Business should reflect this too. Companies need to access the entire talent pool rather than just half of it. Additionally, organizations that understand their customer base will be more successful. And you need a degree of diversity to do that. There is a strong business case for this – if you want to develop a product for women but you don’t have any women on the board, how will you know what women want?
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