A comprehensive global study that researched nearly 22,000 companies in 91 countries found businesses that include women in management experience more economic growth and are more profitable than companies where women are not in executive positions.
The study, “Is Gender Diversity Profitable Evidence From a Global Study,” was conducted by The Peterson Institute for International Economics in conjunction with EY (No. 3 on the 2016 Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity) and concluded that a company with even just 30 percent female leaders can contribute an additional 6 percentage points toward its net margin.
“The impact of having more women in senior leadership on net margin, when a third of companies studied do not, begs the question of what would be the global economic impact if more women rose in the ranks” said Stephen R. Howe, Jr., EY’s U.S. chairman and Americas managing partner. “The research demonstrates that while increasing the number of women directors and CEOs is important, growing the percentage of female leaders in the C-suite would likely benefit the bottom line even more.”
