Men favoured over women for positions of power in Asia — Study

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KUALA LUMPUR: Culturally in Asia, men are openly favoured for positions of power, while women rarely become successors of family-owned businesses or chief executive officers (CEO) in Asian organisations, notes the Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study.

In a statement made available to Bernama yesterday, Towers Watson said a 2011 Grant Thornton International Business Report showed that the global proportion of women in senior management last year, was virtually unchanged from 2004.

“Despite an increase in the number of women in the Malaysian workforce over the last decade, the number of women at senior management level and board is still low.

“On top of that, only 45 per cent of women surveyed in Malaysia agreed that there are programmes in place in their current organisation to help them advance in their career,” it said.

The statement said the study also found that 46 per cent of Malaysian women surveyed indicated that they would leave their current employment for higher base salary in another organisation.

Based on the Global Workforce Study Findings, in terms of job recognition, only 46 per cent of Malaysian women surveyed agreed that their immediate supervisor provided frequent recognition for a job well done.

“Only 48 per cent of women surveyed in Malaysia strongly agreed that their employers made it possible for them to have a healthy balance in work and personal life,” said the statement.

The Towers Watson Global Workforce Study 2012 covers more than 32,000 employees selected from research panels that represent the populations of full-time employees working in large and mid-sized organisations across a range of industries in 29 markets worldwide.

The Malaysian sample includes 1,000 employees. — Bernama