China’s Biggest Commercial Banks Badly Lag In Gender Balance At Top Positions
China’s biggest state-owned commercial banks may have dotted the upper ranks of the Forbes Global 2000 annual ranking of the world’s largest publicly traded companies last month, but they aren’t doing so well when it comes to promoting women to top positions.
A new report by Deloitte found that the top six — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (No.1), China Construction Bank (No. 4), Agricultural Bank of China (No. 9), Bank of China (No. 14) Postal Saving Bank of China (No. 28) and Bank of Communications (No. 57) — have a total of only four females in senior management positions. Senior positions are defined as chairman, CEO and deputy CEO. Collectively, the six have a total of 50 senior management members, meaning that only 8% of top jobs go to women. pg gaming
The results from a survey of 54 banks were presented at the FutureBoards Cross-Border Dialogue in Shanghai in Friday. About 100 people joined the discussion.
A big reason for the imbalance is a 1978 rule that women should retire at age 55, compared with 60 for men, said Deloitte China Vice Chairman David Wu. Businesses would rather promote an executive that will stay for 10 years rather than five. Given that environment, “women give up their career efforts,” Wu said. The problem isn’t that Chinese men aren’t willing to work with women leaders, he noted.
