Every year, the 20-first Global Gender Balance Scorecard looks at a single measure ofprogress: the gender balance of the Executive Committee of the TOP 100 companies inthree key regions of the globe.

A growing number of studies show the correlation betweengender balance in leadership and improved corporateperformance. The complementary skills and styles of menand women have a positive impact on business. Notsurprising, when most of the educated talent in the worldand a majority of the consumer market is female.

Today, more and more companies are waking up to this 21stcentury reality and have begun to make gender balance inleadership a strategic priority. Let's take a look at where thetop companies around the world are on their gender journey.

THE CORE METRIC

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Today the US and Europe are almost at par ingetting women on Boards. 82% of companiesin the US have at least two women on theirBoard; 77% of European companies do.However, the picture looks quite differentwhen it comes to the Executive Committeenumbers in these two regions. A clearmajority of US companies have at least twowomen on their Executive Committee, with60%. Europe is far behind with only 29%.

Turning to Asia, the region continues to lagbehind. Only 14% of companies have at leasttwo women on their Board and a mere 11%of companies have at least two women ontheir Executive Committee. Despite atradition of women in management in manycountries in the region, the largest Asian companies are still struggling to gender balance top positions.

I suppose oneshould applaudincrementalimprovements. Ourlatest Scorecardshows that 87 of thetop 100 Americancompanies now haveat least one womanon their ExecutiveCommittee (EC),

while 60 have 2 or more. 8 are now leadby women. But cause for celebration?Muted at most, since imbalancepredominates. Men comprise 83% ofthese companies’ EC members. Europelags further behind; 38 of its top 100companies lack a single female ECmember. Only 29 can boast 2 or more.None has a female CEO. Men hold 90% ofEuropean companies’ EC positions. As forAustralasian companies, only 4% of ECmembers could, if they wished, wear askirt.

Yet these figures make the point that, liketrousers and skirts, gender roles areculturally imposed rather than innate.Such regional differences demonstratethe part cultural attitudes and biasescontinue to assert in a businessenvironment that claims to bemeritocratic. That women fill 4% of topteam jobs in Asian companies, 10% inEuropean and 17% in American clearlyshows that increasing gender balance inleadership is possible. And as womencontinue to outnumber men in the talentpool and consumer purchasing power, thecompanies that win out will be those whorecognize these realities and build thebalanced teams that are better across arange of leadership metrics.

So congratulations General Motors andMondelez this year for bringing women tothe CEO role, but equal congratulations toall the CEOs who are strategically drivingtowards more gender-balanced teams.

GLOBAL GENDER BALANCE SCORECARDWhere the World’s Top Companies Stand

FIFTH ANNUAL SURVEY March 2014

AvivahWittenberg-Cox

2014

Executive CommitteeMembers Globally

11% 89%

SMALL STEPS

% of Companies with at least 2women on their Board or Executive

Committee

PROGRESSING BEYOND TOKENISM

Alastair Fyfe

%

82

BoardExecutive Committee

AsiaEuropeUS

60

77

29

14 11

9 FEMALE CEOs IN TOP 300

CEO of 20-first

2014 Global Gender Balance Scorecard

THE SIX PHASES ASLEEPSome companies haven't evenstarted the journey; we put themin our 'Asleep' category. Thesecompanies are still, in 2014,pictures of imbalance. They are run by an exclusively male team.

TOKENLess than 15% of both genderson the Executive Team. In thiscategory, the individual(s) is in astaff or support function ratherthan a line or operational role.

STARTING SMARTNext are the 'Starting Smart'companies. They also have lessthan 15% of both genders in themix, but they are in a centralcore or operational role,sometime even CEO.

PROGRESSINGReached a minimum of between15% and 24% of both genders ontheir top team.

CRITICAL MASS These are companies that haveachieved a balance of at least25% of both genders, but lessthan 40%.

BALANCEDThe rare companies that haveachieved gender balance, with aminimum 40% of both genderson the Executive Team. This iswhere balance at the top beginsto reflect the reality of 21stcentury customers, leadershipand talent and gives companiesthe competitive edge to innovateand deliver value sustainably andglobally.

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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS OFEACH REGION’S TOP 100 COMPANIES

US LEADS. The US leads the way with 60% of companies having at least twowomen on their Executive Committees. Eight companies, including IBM, Pepsico,Lockheed Martin and General Motors, have a woman Chief Executive. But closerinspection shows there’s a long way to go. Of the 1,164 Executive Committeemembers of America’s Top 100 companies, only 199 (17%) are women and 965(83%) are men. Two thirds of these women are in staff or support positions (129or 65%) such as HR, Communications or Legal. Only 70 (35%) are in line oroperational roles. And there has been no significant change in these percentagesover the last three years.

EUROPE STILL FOCUSED JUST ON BOARDS. Meanwhile, Europe’s companies,while progressing on Board balance in some countries because of quotas (or thethreat of them), are still struggling to balance their top Executive teams. Only29% of European companies have at least two women on their ExecutiveCommittees, although this does represent an increase from 20 in 2011. Nonehave a female CEO. Of the 1,025 Executive Committee members of Europe’s Top100 companies,110 (10%) are women, while 915 (90%) are men. Most of thesewomen (64, or 58%) are in staff or support roles. A higher percentage than in theUS are in line or operational roles (46 women or 42% of total).

ASIA NOT INTERESTED? Only 11% of Asian-based companies have at least twowomen on their Executive Committee. Compared to the 1,057 men (96% of total)on Executive Committees in Asia, there are only 42 women (4% of total), twothirds of them (27) in staff roles and a mere 15 in line or operational roles.

KEY FINDINGS

The data for this survey is based on publicly available information provided by thetop Fortune 100 companies in each region (United States, Europe and Asia) ontheir websites as of March 2014. The list of companies was drawn from the Fortune 500 Global rankings published in July 2013.

The Executive Committee is defined as the group of executives who reportdirectly to the CEO.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Companies that only manage to promote women into leadership through staffroles demonstrate that they have not yet worked out how to gender balance theirleadership development systems and their talent pipelines. We would assume thisalso has consequences on their ability to understand the gender opportunities intheir markets and among their customers. This does not bode well for the futuresustainability of the gender balance in these organizations.

Staff or support roles include Communications, HR, Legal, IT, Strategy, Public Affairs, etc. Line oroperational roles include CEO, CFO, Country Head, Business Unit Head, and positions with profit &loss responsibility.

WHY LOOK AT STAFF VS LINE?

AsiaEuropeUS

US

Europe

Asia

Men Line Staff

965 70 12983% 6% 11%

915 46 6489% 5% 6%

1015 15 2796% 1% 3%

– in staff roles

– in line roles

Men

Women

%

THE GENDER JOURNEY

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2014 Global Gender Balance Scorecard

UNITEDSTATES

13 25 6 31 23 2

EUROPE

38 20 15 18 8 1

ASIA

71 10 8 9 2 0

ASLEEP TOKENSTARTINGSMART PROGRESSING CRITICAL MASS BALANCED

ASLEEP TOKENSTARTINGSMART PROGRESSING CRITICAL MASS BALANCED

ASLEEP TOKENSTARTINGSMART PROGRESSING CRITICAL MASS BALANCED

Number ofCompanies

Number ofCompanies

Number ofCompanies

Companies shown are representative of the list in each category

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• The business Imperative:We help companies to unlock 21st century Market and Talent opportunities

• Focus on leaders, not onwomen: We equip leaders witha strategic understanding andmanagement competenciesto work across genders

• Global perspectives:We are experienced working with global companies across all regions and cultures ofthe world

20-first is one of the world’sleading global consultanciesfocused on gender balance as a business and economicopportunity.

We work with many of the bestknown global companies that seekto move from 20th centurymindsets, management styles andmarketing approaches into moreprogressive 21st century forms –and to stay first at the game.

Hence our name. It underlies ourpurpose, and those of the clientswe serve.

For more information, please contact queries@20-first.com

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Wake UpEngage leadersand managers

Start SmartLaunch an

initiative with the right people and the rightpositioning

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Align LeadersGet buy-in onwhy balance is a business

opportunity andhow to scale it

BuildManagement

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with skillsneeded to

manage acrossgenders

Sustain theChange

Keep up themomentum, trackprogress and

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And just published by Harvard Business Review,the new e-book: Seven Stepsto Leading Gender-BalancedBusinesses 7S E V E N S T E P S T O L E A D I N G A

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