Glass Ceilings in Sweden and Thailand

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SUBJECT: ACADEMIC SKILLS

DATE: 06 / 03 / 2017

NAME: RITTIKA SANJEEV CHADHA

WORDS: 2674

TO WHAT EXTENT DOES THE GLASS CEILING AFFECT COMPANIES

AND OCCUR IN SWEDEN AND THAILAND?

INDEX

1. Introduction                                                                                                                       Page 2
2. To what extent do women benefit companies and the economy?                           Page 2
3. To what extent does the glass ceiling occur in Sweden and Thailand?                    Page 4
4. Cultural Acceptance and Relevance in Sweden and Thailand                                    Page 5
5. Company and Educational Policies to break the glass ceiling                                    Page 6
6. Conclusion                                                                                                                          Page 7
7. List of References                                                                                                              Page 8

1. INTRODUCTION

Glass ceilings as Dorothy Montgomery defines in her book, A users’ guide to breaking the glass ceiling, is the unseen, yet unreachable barrier keeping minorities, including women, from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder- regardless of the their qualifications or achievements. This definition initially only applied to women, but now extends to other minorities as well (Montgomery, 2013). The aim of this research is to argue about the positive impact women have on companies, the global economy and how companies should address the glass ceiling effect on women via company policies. The research is also going to highlight the existence of the glass ceiling in Thailand and Sweden and make comparisons between the two countries, highlighting how Sweden has some of the most gender equality laws and yet, Thailand has more women leaders; the cultural differences between the two countries and how company and education policies will help reduce the glass ceiling effect.

1. TO WHAT EXTENT DO WOMEN BENEFIT COMPANIES AND THE ECONOMY

There have been plenty of research and academic studies that have found a strong connection between having a woman on the board of a company and its financial outcome. Such as a report from a bank called Credit Suisse shows proof that a better gender mix within senior managers is linked to better performance (McGregor, 2014). The bank gathered information of 3000 companies from 40 countries around the world about their gender mix in the company and then compared it to the financial data of the company on a regular basis. The result was the same; companies with a wider gender mix have better financial performance. The bank also compared the companies in which women make up less than 5% of the top jobs of the companies where women make up more than 10% of those jobs; what they discovered was a 27% higher return on equity and a 42% higher ratio of dividend pay-outs in those companies with a better gender mix. Female CEOS tend to make fewer acquisitions and more divestitures as compared to male CEOS. Even companies that had more female executives had a better stock performance, higher valuations, higher pay- out dividends and higher returns on equity. It is arguable if the companies are performing better because they have more women in management or because the better companies employ more women. In the end the both the statements are probably true and the effect is the same (McGregor, 2014).

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Fig 1: The higher the ratio of women in jobs - the better the company's stock market performance. The numbers on the left side of the graphic reflect the cumulative shareholder return. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/09/24/more-women-at-the-top-higher-returns/ 

Another study by Pittsburgh based human resources firm called DDI is one of the most comprehensive. The DDI study is a little different from most of the studies in the past. It looked at all the levels of a company to address whether having more women in a company is more beneficial. The study differs also looked at a larger sample size of 13000 leaders, 1500 Human resource executives and 2000 organisations in 48 countries. It found that women only hold 28% of the leadership positions amongst these companies. Out of the top 20 percent of companies 27 percent were women leaders. In 2012, another study by the Harvard Business Review Blog amongst 7300 business leaders found the same result. The study rated women and men at every level by their peers, bosses, reports and associates and found that when it came to leadership strength, women were overall better leaders and were even better at a higher position (Adam, 2015). Not only are companies with women more successful but also companies with minorities. A consulting firm named McKinsey gained data from 366 companies around the world and found that companies with women at the top had 15% higher operating earnings compared to the median in their industry. Although, companies with more racial and ethnical diversity at the top had 30% higher operating earnings (McGregor, 2015). According to another research, women are the ultimate economic accelerator; however if the world moves at the pace it is now, it will take women 80 years to achieve economic equality with men. The amount that this will contribute to the global economy is $28 million. Except 18 countries out of 173 all have some legal discrimination against women. A women’s flagship report in the year 2015 showed that women are paid a quarter lesser amount than their male counterparts and yet spend 90% of that salary on their families. Not taking any action not only denies women their basic human right, but also damages our economic potential. Women bring about a positive economic contribution to their family, company, community and country (Villa, 2016).

1. TO WHAT EXTENT DOES THE GLASS CEILING OCCOUR IN SWEDEN AND THAILAND

Though no country in the world has achieved complete gender equality, Sweden is one of the most reputed country for this reason. Sweden’s Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Löfven is a proud feminist and is seeking to achieve complete gender equality (The Local, 2015). Sweden got a head start being the first one in 1919 to give women the right to vote, but it still needs to bridge the gender gap (Sweden, 2017). Sweden also has 1.5 times the number of female graduates than male (Zahidi, 2014). They have laws to prevent gender discrimination. However, these laws do not apply to all firms and only cover board seats. Thus, a striking feature in most Sweden company headquarters is that almost all senior managers are still men. There are more women in Sweden’s company boards now, but nearly always it is a man who is at the very top. In the Nordic countries only 6 percent of firms had a female CEO (Economist, 2014). In many aspects Thailand seems to be progressing as well; they recently had a female head of government and female students tend to outnumber their male counterparts in most levels of schooling. They also outperform males in reading, science and mathematics. Despite their higher performance during schooling, an analysis based on the government’s Labour Force survey in 2014 claims that women with the same jobs, marital status and age made 15% less when compared to their male counterparts (Amornvivat , 2015). In Thailand, men and women start off their careers at around the same place. Somewhere in the middle women drop out for various reasons such as marriage, children or family issues. Thailand doesn’t have the same social support, benefits, day-care systems or welfare support programmes which are available in the rest of the world (Sasiwimon, 2014). Unlike this the Swedish government strives to create equal opportunities for both sexes. It has one of the highest women representatives in parliament at 43.6 percent in 2014 and 57% of Sweden’s cabinet ministers were women (Sweden, 2017) (Economist, 2014). Yet despite this and having laws to prevent discrimination, there remains a wage gap at six percent. In 2014’s bi-annual report on gender equality it was noted that there is only one in ten woman from 1050 of the largest companies as CEO; in the executive position there is three in ten while only 24 percent board members and 5 percent board chairpersons were women (Sweden, 2017). In Thailand only 10% of women occupy permanent secretary roles, 20% permanent roles at the dictator – general level and 30% permanent roles at the deputy dictator – general level. (Sasiwimon, 2014). However, another research by DDI shows that Thailand is the third country in the world with most female leaders at 40 percent and having 38 percent of women CEO’s (Adam, 2015). In Thailand’s labour market women are more visible than any other Asian country and they work extremely hard. Over the years the gender gap has reduced, but it needs to reduce further for progress (Amornvivat, 2015). Thailand being a collective and patriarchal society expects the women to provide the caregiving support to the family. Many single women are also burdened by the family as they are believed to be more free compared to the rest and can spend time doing menial household jobs (Sasiwimon, 2014).