Women landing powerful posts, but still with difficulty

The Philippines ranked fourth among 36 major economies in terms of women representation in leadership positions, but more needs to be done to allow them to tap opportunities that are still lopsided toward men, according to a report by employment platform LinkedIn.

The data, published in the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Report, showed that 41 percent hired for leadership roles in the country were women.

Manila placed fourth, after Finland with 46 percent; Latvia, 46 percent; and Romania, 42 percent. The laggards were Germany with just 22 percent of leadership roles given to women, followed by United Arab Emirates with 20 percent and India, 18 percent.

Looking closely at the positions held by women in companies in the Philippines, 40 percent were at the vice president (VP) level while 32 percent belonged to the C-suite or the top executive positions in the business hierarchy.

These numbers are higher compared to the global average of 27 percent at the VP level and 25 percent at the C-suite level.

Women ‘underrepresented’

Still, the study noted men were 26 percent more likely to be promoted into leadership roles than women in the Philippines.

And even if they can be found in various industries, it does not mean they have better representation in the leadership roles, LinkedIn said.

In the health-care sector, for example, more women (60 percent) are employed but only 45 percent hold leadership positions.

“Our data is telling us a very clear story: Women face more barriers in the workplace when compared to their male counterparts—they are currently underrepresented in leadership, and are not being promoted into leadership roles at the same rate as men,” LinkedIn Asia-Pacific managing director Feon Ang said.

The LinkedIn official called on companies and organizations to ensure “equal access to opportunities” in the workplace.

“Organizations and business leaders should look at solutions like internal mobility, fair hiring practices with a focus on skills and flexibility. This will ensure that women are equal contributors at all levels in an organization,” Ang added.

For the study, LinkedIn generated insights from “anonymized and aggregated profile information” of 830 million members globally.