Women in Asia are less represented in the workplace than their European and US peers, particularly in upper management, according to a report published by McKinsey & Company this week.

In its new report — Women Matter: An Asian Perspective — McKinsey took 744 companies from the local stock indices of 10 Asian markets and looked at the gender composition of their boards and executive committees. McKinsey found that the proportion of women sitting on corporate boards and executive committees in Asian companies is "strikingly low compared with Europe and the US", even though women remain under-represented in those regions too.

On average, women account for 6 per cent of seats on corporate boards in the 10 Asian markets McKinsey studied, and 8 per cent of those on executive committees. The comparative figures in Europe and the US are 17 per cent and 10 per cent, and 15 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.

So what is holding women back? First, the rates of female participation in the labour force, while varying significantly from country to country in Asia, generally tend to be lower than they are in the West.

Also, although elements of a gender diversity programme are in place in some Asian companies, for the most part the issue is not yet high on the strategic agenda, showed the report.

Despite the business case for recruiting and developing more women, 70 per cent of the executives McKinsey surveyed in Asia said greater gender diversity was not a strategic priority for their companies — that is, it was not among their top 10 priorities. In Europe, the figure was 47 per cent. In addition, only a minority of Asian executives — some 40 per cent — expected that their companies would step up efforts to improve gender diversity during the next five years. South Korean executives were a notable exception: two-thirds foresaw the rapid introduction of more gender diversity initiatives, McKinsey found.

A lack of female role models who can inspire and encourage other women, and a lack of the networks that can be crucial to advancement, is another hindrance, added the report. 

But the main obstacle lies in cultural views held by women as well as men. Thirty per cent of business leaders surveyed said many or most women at mid-career or senior level leaving their jobs voluntarily did so because of family commitments. In certain markets, the level is much higher. In India, South Korea and Japan, it is close to half, leading McKinsey to conclude that it is the strength of cultural views, held by many women as well as men, that hinder women’s progress. In Australia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, family duties appear to exert less influence over women’s decisions about their working lives.

“There is a long list of often unspoken or unrecognised biases, such as the fact that people are more comfortable with those who resemble themselves — which means that men often rate the performance of other men more highly than that of women. The fact that women can be reluctant to promote themselves only intensifies such biases,” McKinsey said. “Corporations have a role to play in helping to remove or lower all of these obstacles, and more.”

As a solution, McKinsey offered three main elements to improve the imbalance. Management commitment, women’s development programmes, and “a set of enablers”, that together help ease women’s progress through the company. These include indicators to identify inequalities and track improvements, human resources processes and policies, and support.