|
|
China’s Corporate Women Get Little Love atState Firms
Chinese women continue to make strides in corporate settings, but they're still a rare sight at the helm of Chinese companies -- particularly at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) -- according to anew study by Yan Zhang, a management professor at ChinaEurope International Business School.
Among companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, the proportion offemale board chairs increased a modest 0.3 percentage points, to 4% in 2010 from 3.7% in 1997, while women made up just 5.6% of CEOs in 2010 (compared with 4.6% in 1997), Ms. Zhangfound.
Despite the Chinese government's official stance that women are just as capable as men in theworkplace, women fare quite a bit worse at state-run companies: They made up 5.4% of non-SOE board chairs in 2010, but just 2.9% at SOEs, and they filled 13.7% of director seats at non-SOEs, compared with 10% in SOEs.
The disparity is best displayed at the CEO level: Women jumped to 8.2% of chiefs at non-SOEs in 2010 from 5.1% in 1997. At SOEs, that number actually fell to 3.6% from 4.3% in the sameperiod.
Ms. Zhang attributes some of that disparity to the fact that many non-SOEs are family firms thatcreate 'fast tracks' to the top as daughters take over when their fathers step down.
'If we consider executive succession as a tournament, this tournament is not open to everyone,' she writes. While family businesses have a small roster of players, the teams at SOEs are muchlarger, and statistically speaking have more men from whom they can chose.
The numbers may seem grim -- and, compared to European targets, they are -- but Chinesecompany figures are better in some regards than those of their Western counterparts. Accordingto the study, women comprised just 2.6% of board chairs at U.S. companies in 2010.
To improve the proportion of women in leadership positions -- both at SOEs and non-SOEs -- Ms. Zhang says women must accept broad-based management positions with responsibility for acompany's profits and losses, rather than seeking comfort in more back-room functional areassuch as human resources and accounting.
1497146_094820_1.jpg
中欧国际工商学院(China Europe International Business School)管理学教授张燕新近进行的一项研究显示，虽然中国女性在企业界不断取得长足进步，但跻身中国企业最高决策层的女性高管仍不多见，这种情况在国有企业尤为明显。
张燕发现，在上海和深圳证券交易所上市的企业中，担任公司董事长的女性占比从1997年的3.7%上升至2010年的4%，增幅仅有0.3个百分点。2010年，中国上市公司中女性首席执行长(CEO)的占比仅为5.6%，1997年这一数字为4.6%。
尽管中国政府的官方立场从来都是女性在职场能顶半边天，但实际情况却是女性在国有企业的晋升之路反而更差：2010年女性在非国有企业担任董事长的比例为5.4%，但在国有企业中这一数字仅为2.9%；在非国有企业中担任公司董事的女性比例为13.7%，但在国有企业中仅为10%。
这种差距在CEO层面能够清楚地看出：从1997年至2010年，非国有企业中女性CEO的占比从5.1%升至8.2%。同期在国有企业中，这一比例则从4.3%下降至3.6%。
张燕认为造成这种差距的部分原因是很多非国有企业是家族企业，当女儿准备接替即将让位的父辈时，这类企业会为她们开辟出直登公司最高领导职位的“快车道”。
张燕写道，如果我们将企业领导层交接班看作一场比赛，那么这场比赛不是对每个人都开放的。虽然在家族企业能参与此类竞争的人不多，但在国有企业具备资格的参赛人数就大得多了。从统计学角度讲，国有企业有更多可供挑选的男性。
这些数字所反映的情况看上去可能堪称严峻（和欧洲企业相比也确实如此），但和西方企业相比，中国企业在某些方面的数据要更好些。张燕的研究显示，2010年在美国企业中担任董事长的女性比例仅有2.6%。
张燕认为，要提高女性在国有企业和非国有企业领导层中的占比，女性必须接受涉及较多工作职责的管理层职位，而不是到人力资源和会计等较为辅助性的岗位上寻求安逸，因为前一种职位必须为公司的盈亏担责。 |
|
发表于 2016-7-11 09:55:06