Asia-Pacific leads the world for female CEOs

It may come as a surprise but Asia-Pacific has the world’s highest number of female chief executive officers in a study carried out by Credit Suisse.

Leading the charge is Singapore with females representing 15% of the CEO population sampled. It tied with Italy for female CEOs, but the Lion City has much better figures across management as whole, including women CFOs. Thailand is not far behind in 3rd place at 9% while the Philippines is 4th with 8%.

But Asia-Pacific is a diverse region with very high and low percentages of female CEOs. Malaysia lags behind the rest of the region with 0% female CEO representation. While it has 23% of women in management roles, Malaysia lacks gender diversity in CEO positions.

China also stood out as much less progressive, with female representation in the boardroom a long way below the global average.

The research is surprising as many people consider Asia to be behind the curve when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

But the general trend seems to be upwards in Asia-Pacific, as the fight for gender equality continues to gather pace. The number of women in management positions has climbed to 19% representation for the region.
Over the past decade the number of women in boardrooms worldwide has doubled to reach 20.6%.

The Credit Suisse report analysed diversity in the executive teams of more than 3,000 companies across 56 countries. In Asia-Pacific it included 1,280 companies from 14 different markets.