Why having women at the table is good for your bottom line

Our Canopy consultants have held management positions in big companies. They have opted out of the C-suite track but continue to do project-based work at that level for our clients. We love helping our consultants thrive and find balance professionally and personally, so noteworthy stories like this one about women in business pique our interest.

We often hear lopsided statistics about the lack of women at the CEO level, but a new global study of 22,000 public companies in 91 countries looked at something else – what about when women hold a significant percentage of management positions just shy of the corner office?

Is Gender Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey — released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY — found significant correlation between the number of women in top management positions and profitability.  Interesting.

From The New York Times:  Women in Company Leadership Tied to Stronger Profits

The study found that female CEOs did not significantly underperform or overperform when compared with male chief executives. While it found some indications that having more women on boards was correlated with higher profitability … that evidence is not robust.

But the data was clear about women in top management positions. An increase in the share of women from zero to 30 percent would be associated with a 15 percent rise in profitability.

The study found that educational credentials and work experience are the key differentiating attributes for these women managers. Social attitudes, corporate practices and national laws were thought to be conditioning outcomes.

Holding on to top-performing women is still clearly a challenge for most companies. In our opinion, reinforced by our clients’ feedback, bringing women to the decision-making table – be they full-time, part-time or contractors — makes for a stronger, more profitable business venture.