Census on Women in Executive Leadership Teams in Philippine Publicly Listed Companies
Summary
This report establishes a tangible baseline for the continuous and comprehensive tracking of women’s representation in Philippine publicly listed companies.
The Census on Women in Executive Leadership Teams (ELT) in Philippine Publicly Listed Companies (PLCs) covers 286 companies publicly listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. It assesses the WGE status of PLCs to guide private sector companies in setting their gender equality targets and tracking their progress. Consequently, it can also help inform the government and policymakers in establishing policy decisions and in measuring towards stronger gender equality targets.
It builds on the 2022 Workplace Gender Equality and Sustainability Reporting, which posited the progress in advancing WGE in the country, but also highlights the lack of extensive data pipeline that illustrates the scope and pace of change in gender composition at the middle and higher management levels.
This census contributes to addressing the major gap in the reporting of WGE in the country.
This report is published by the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE), Philippine Women’s Economic Network, and WR Numero Research, Inc., with support from Investing in Women. It is originally published on the PBCWE website. For more information on this report, you may contact PBCWE.
Highlights
- The number of women in ELTS increased by almost 10% from 2020 to 2022. In 2020, there were only 24 women CEOs or 38% women representation, compared to 32 women CEOs or 40% representation in 2022.
- As for BODs, the number of women holding directorial seats increased by 3%. Given these figures, 18% of PLCs have gender balanced BODs, while 32% have gender balanced ELTs in 2022.
- Despite these developments, women remain underrepresented in Philippine PLCs, particularly in line roles, the board of directors, and the C-suite. Philippine PLCs struggle with the ‘leaky pipeline’ as women only make up 21% of BODs and a mere 13% of CEO position
- Closely related to this are the “glass walls”, where the majority of women occupy functional roles while men tend to dominate line roles, which typically lead to promotion to top leadership positions. This imbalance affects women’s career mobility, limiting opportunities for women as well as the available talent pool for leadership positions.
- This report calls on PLCs to build a gender-inclusive culture by investing in training and planning programs, implementing flexible working arrangements, and adopting more gender-responsive policies. Enhancing WGE and Sustainability reporting guidelines and setting specific gender targets is also crucial for PLCs committed to gender diversity.
