Over 25 years of missed opportunities
Our latest Women in Business report reveals the pace towards parity in mid-market firms isn’t moving fast enough. A young woman starting her career today will be working for more than a quarter of a century before she can expect to work at a mid-market firm with gender parity in top senior roles.
Our research explores how gender balanced teams can bring better business performance – and with small and mid-market firms making up the largest part of the global economy, now is the time to keep up the pressure.
Drivers of diversity
To avoid another generation of missed opportunity – for women, for the midmarket, and for the whole economy – now is the time to keep up the pressure. We’ve identified three key drivers of diversity in this year’s report:
Be bold, set ambitious targets on senior positions.
Businesses must have a clear target on the percentage of women in senior management positions and consider going a step further and set targets on specific positions they would like to see women occupy.
Commit to targets supporting all career stages, not just leadership.
Our data has shown that networking and mentoring help ensure that, once women reach senior management, they stay there. Firms need to put in place targets on these key areas, support women through their career journey and better enable their professional development. If they lose talented female staff, they miss out on potential growth.
Exert pressure on external partners throughout supply chains.
Firms that invest in, partner with, or are clients of mid-market businesses have significant influence in driving gender balance. By setting expectations and prioritising diversity in supplier relationships, businesses can encourage their partners to adopt inclusive strategies and targets.
Download the report
Read about the opportunities to drive meaningful change.