International Women’s Day - achievements in Sri Lanka celebrated:

Ways to break glass ceiling debated

Aruni RAJAKARIER, head of ACCA Sri Lanka

International Women’s Day is now 100 years old; this global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future first began in 1911.

IWD, which takes place on March 08, is an official holiday in many countries. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, and colleagues with flowers and small gifts.

For its centenary year, the theme for IWD 2011 is ‘Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.”

This theme resonates clearly with ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) because our aim is to provide opportunity and access to people of ability around the world, supporting our members throughout their careers in accounting, business and finance - whether they are women or men. We also work to promote diversity in business at all levels of seniority as a way of enhancing business performance.

Looking globally, while there may be more women in the boardroom than in 1911, while there may be greater equality in legislative rights and more women acting as role models in every aspect of life than 100 years ago, it could be thought that women have gained true equality.

However, the fact is that many women are still not paid equally to that of their male colleagues; women are still not present in equal numbers in business or politics, with many women finding it difficult to set up in business. And as the IWD website says, globally, women’s education and health is worse than that of men. There are still equality barriers that women face on a daily basis.

Making Improvements

Some women have already overcome those barriers, not least in Sri Lanka where Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike became the world’s first female head of government, serving as Prime Minister of Ceylon and Sri Lanka three times, 1960-65, 1970-77 and 1994-2000, with her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga becoming the country’s fourth executive President.

That said, in common with most other countries, there are still calls for women to make up a greater proportion of the government.

Striding ahead in finance

So that’s the situation in the world of politics, but what about in the world of the finance professions?

The latest available figures from 2010 show that women make up an increasing proportion of new entrants to the accountancy profession.

Globally, almost 50 per cent of the accountancy trainee intake is female and over half of ACCA members and students are women. So have all the problems been solved? Evidence from ACCA’s own research, Women in Accounting and Finance Survey, conducted by colleagues in ACCA Singapore and Robert Half, the global recruitment consultants, suggested that the glass ceiling remains shatter proof.

A worrying statistic from the survey was that 45 per cent of respondents did not think they would reach a senior management position, such as a directorship, within finance and accounting.

This exists partly because the upper levels of the profession are still often dominated by men, according to a report by AccountingWeb. In both the UK and the US, two of the most advanced countries in the world, only 20 per cent of senior jobs are held by women.

Last year, ACCA produced a report called Equality: Women in Financial Services. It included nine recommendations, from advising that women should be provided with training in leadership, influencing and negotiating skills to equip them for senior management roles to the need for organisations to build support programs and provide access to role models, networks and mentors to help female colleagues overcome obstacles and to succeed.

Evidence proves that companies need gender-balanced senior management teams to participate in the global market strategically and wisely. For example, many studies confirm that men and women bring different and complementary sensibilities and leadership styles to the table.

Economic Opportunity

Away from the finance profession, women’s obstacles to economic opportunity are a massive hurdle to overcome. This can be seen clearly with research from the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) report called Women’s Economic Opportunity: A new global index and ranking.

This groundbreaking report was produced to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence women’s economic opportunity. This has been done by creating an index, the first of its kind to identify the laws, regulations, practices, customs and attitudes that enable women to participate in the workforce.

It looks at labour policy and practice; access to finance; education and training; women’s legal and social status and the general business environment - and how these factors affect women’s ability to seek opportunities.

But what of Sri Lanka ? It ranks 73rd, sandwiched between Honduras at 72nd and Venzuela in 74th. Looking specifically at the Asia region, Sri Lanka ranks 16th out of 33 countries in the EIU’s listing.

The EIU report also reminds readers that when it comes to setting up in business, many women face greater barriers than men. For those women who are not able to make it in the formal workplace, starting their own business may be the best option open to them.

The truth is that just as women are underrepresented in the workplace, they are also less likely than men to start their own business. And this is virtually true in all economies. Research, including that by the EIU, points to a number of factors why this may be the case; from cultural norms and customs to general attitudes to risk and fear of failure. Increasing the rate of female entrepreneurship could be a key contributor to economic growth, something that’s high on government agendas across the world.

But the gains could be beyond economic. Indeed, research on women development indicates women are more likely to share their gains in education, health, and resources with members of their families and their communities at large.

The challenge ahead

Women are not one homogeneous group and the challenges of finding appropriate policy towards women’s enterprise has to be seen in the context of the fact that there is no ‘one size fits all’ policy that will work for what is actually half of the potential labour force. As policy and support measures are reviewed, this should be remembered.