Shared by Amira Elmissiry,
Dear colleagues,
I am sharing a copy of the latest McKinsey & Company report on Africa:
Women Matter Africa: Making gender diversity a reality.
This research report highlights that Africa has taken big strides forward in terms of women's representation in the private and public sectors, achieving and in some cases exceeding global averages. Yet it is far from achieving gender equality.
Summary
Drawing on research undertaken at over 200 African companies and interviews with more than 30 women leaders across the continent, the report presents the case for gender diversity in leadership in Africa's public and private sectors. This is the first report to show regional dynamics in gender diversity in leadership on the continent.
The findings emerging from this work include:
- Companies with more gender diverse boards tend to perform better financially. African companies are no different; the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin of top quartile companies in terms of gender diversity is ~20% higher than industry average.
- Those with at least a quarter share of women on their boards was on average 20 percent higher than the industry average.
- In the private sector, Africa has more women in board, CEO and executive committee roles than the global average, but women remain under-represented at the lower levels of the corporate pipeline.
- In public sector, Africa has more women in parliamentary roles than the global average yet representation rates need to double if Africa is to achieve gender equality.
- Although the number of women leaders has increased in both the private and public sectors, they do not necessarily have more power or influence.