'Firms With More Women Managers Benefit From Healthier Share Prices'

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- Corporations are doing more to track the number of women they employ and those that record more women at managerial levels appear to benefit from healthier share prices in times of market turmoil. This latest report from Thomson Reuters, Women in the Workplace, provides an overview of the latest trends in gender equality within large and mid-cap publicly-traded corporations globally, examines the differences between the United States and Europe, sector comparisons and how more women onboard could reflect higher investor returns. It said the number of companies disclosing quantitative information on the percentage of their workforce composed of women rose by 13 per cent from 2005 to 2010 (fiscal years). For the same set of companies over the same five year period, there was a 10 per cent increase in those disclosing the percentage of their managers who were women. However, there is only a small increase in the number of women breaking through to more senior roles (middle management). There are still a number of companies where women make up more than half the workforce but only a fifth of the managerial staff. Andre Chanavat, Manager of Environment, Social & Governance Commercial Support at Thomson Reuters, said: "The data suggests that companies that help their female employees break through the glass ceiling may produce higher risk-adjusted returns for shareholders in periods of market volatility reminds us that gender equality in the workplace is more than a matter of social justice: it may make good business and investment sense. "This analysis also illustrates how being able to screen for a wide range of responsible investment strategies and integrate them with traditional investment analysis can prove interesting for professional investors in identifying a new range of buy and sell signals. The analysis is based on data compiled from over 2,600 companies worldwide using Thomson Reuters Datastream to access ASSET4 Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance content. ASSET4 provides objective, comparable and latest company reported environmental, social and governance (ESG) information. -- BERNAMA