by Santosh Digal

Women hold 47 per cent of senior management positions in the Philippines, which now has more than 2.8 million women managers. However, men still make more money for the same job. In Japan only 7 per cent of management positions are filled by women.

Manila (AsiaNews) – Women hold 47 per cent of senior management positions in the Philippines, leading the world average by as much as 23 percentage points, said a survey by Grant Thornton International. Data from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) indicate that women have steadily outnumbered men in executive positions in the past several years.

Roseline Dizon, an accountant in a private firm in Manila, told AsiaNews that it is an “encouraging trend” that women are leading in workforce in the country. She ascribed education and empowerment of women as some of the reasons for the trend.

Lourdes C. Pamintuan, a financial broker, said that many private and public sectors firms are hiring women as managers and supervisors, because women work with greater efficiency, wit, charm and diligence than men.

DOLE data confirms the trend. In 2002, the ratio was 1.86 million females to 1.4 million males in supervisory and executive positions. By 2007, the ratio was 2.281 million female managers to 1.677 million male managers.

Still women lag behind men with regard to equal salaries.

Joining the Philippines in the list of countries ranking high in women empowerment in the workplace are Russia with 42 per cent of senior management positions held by women, followed by Thailand with 38 per cent, Poland with 32 per cent, and China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Mexico with 31 per cent.

The biggest leaps were made by Turkey and Mexico, whose percentages of senior management positions held by women jumped from 17 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2009, and from 20 percent in 2007 to 31 percent this year, respectively.

Globally, however, women continue to have a difficult time climbing the corporate ladder, with only an average of 24 per cent of senior management positions held by female executives. This was the same percentage as in 2007, which was just a few notches up from the 19 per cent figure posted in 2004.

By comparison Japanese women are far behind; they hold only 7 per cent of management positions.

And 34 per cent of privately held businesses worldwide did not have any women in senior management.

• philippines
• women
• managers
• salaries
• equality
• improvement
• supervisory
• executive
• positions