Singapore trails behind other Asian countries on workplace gender equality

Neighbor Malaysia has shot up to second place.

Singapore trails behind other key Asian countries when it comes to gender parity in the workplace, the Gender Diversity Benchmark for Asia 2014 revealed today.

The report, sponsored mainly by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, showed that Singapore’s workplace gender equality had fallen to the bottom half in a list of six key Asian markets including Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, and India.

Singapore ranks fourth in Asia on all indicators, including the average representation of women in the total workforce (48.2%), as well as at junior, middle and senior levels.

Although the companies in Singapore are achieving gender parity at junior levels (58.5%), other markets have caught up quickly, pulling the country down from second place when the survey was last conducted in 2011.

At middle levels, Singapore’s average representation of women is 40.6%, however, it drops to 23.7% at senior levels, lower than the regional average of 24.3%.

“Much more needs to be done and performance varies across the region. Women continue to be under-represented at senior levels in organisations and we need to continue to address this. However, overall these gradually improving numbers show that moving the needle and achieving greater gender balance, if not gender parity at all levels, is indeed an achievable goal in Asia.,” said Fern Ngai, CEO of Community Business.

“Integrating diversity initiatives into business operations is fundamentally important – ensuring that progress is made should be a leadership priority, not just a women’s issue. We are seeing improvements but the involvement of champions at senior levels certainly helps to encourage further progress,” said Bernhard Steiner, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific Chief Risk Officer.

Here’s more from the report:
Northern neighbour Malaysia presents an encouraging picture with a consistent upward trend in performance compared to 2011.

When it comes to the average representation of women in the total workforce (58.1%), at junior levels (63.0%) and middle levels (50.3%), the companies in Malaysia are achieving or exceeding gender parity.

Like Singapore, the biggest leak in Malaysia’s pipeline takes place between middle and senior levels with an average 32.4% drop. When it comes to the average representation of women at senior levels, performance continues to be relatively strong at 34.0%.

Malaysia ranks second at this level, just behind China only, and has the highest percentage of
companies (35.3%) attaining or surpassing gender parity.