Women in senior business management: Vietnam in top 10

The Grant Thornton International Business Report revealed in March, that in Vietnam the increase in women in senior management continues and stands at 33 per cent.

Top of the table is China’s mainland, with 51 per cent. The top 10 also contains the growth economies of Latvia, Thailand and the Philippines. Japan, with just 7 per cent of senior roles occupied by women, is the worst performer. Japan, the UK (19 per cent) and the US (20 per cent) are in the bottom eight countries for women in senior management.

Trinh Thi Tuyet Anh, audit director of Grant Thornton Vietnam, said: “Given the high flexible working hours in Vietnam and the government's favourable policy for gender equality, many Vietnamese women are taking the opportunity and are increasingly proving themselves in the work place.

“Being women, we realise that there are more opportunities in senior management roles. And we are rising to the challenge,” she added.

The data shows that globally, 24 per cent of senior management roles are now filled by women. This is up from 21 per cent in 2012 and 20 per cent in 2011. However, the G7 economies came bottom of the league table with just 21 per cent of senior roles occupied by women. This compares to 28 per cent in the BRIC economies, 32 per cent in South East Asia and 40 per cent in Baltic states.

The report reveals that flexible working, while welcomed by many, does not appear to be a determining factor in getting women into top positions. Up to 72 per cent of businesses in the poor-performing G7 countries provide flexible working, while in China only 27 per cent of businesses offer flexible working and only 40 per cent in the BRIC economies. Vietnam is a leader in this category with 70 per cent of companies offering flexible working hours.

The data in the report are drawn from more than 6,500 interviews with business leaders from all industry sectors, conducted between November 2012 and February 2013. Additional in-depth interviews were conducted by Forbes Insights.

Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax at Grant Thornton UK and incoming global leader of tax at Grant Thornton International, said: “The pioneer economies where economic growth is high have greater diversity in their senior management teams.

Women are playing a major role in driving the world’s growth economies, bringing balance to the decision-making process and the smooth running of their companies. In comparison, the mature economies of the G7 are now playing catch up. They need to wake up to gender disparity and add this crucial ingredient to long-term growth and profitability.”