The Hindu Business Line : Low self-esteem, a damper

What are the perceptions of women when it comes to evaluating the importance of their own contribution at the workplace, particularly in comparison to the roles played by their male colleagues?
RASHEEDA BHAGAT looks at the recently released findings of the MasterCard Worldwide survey on women’s advancement in the Asia Pacific region, which even while confirming some clichés, throws up some surprises.

An interesting debate of our times pertains to the success of women at the workplace. Despite icons such as PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi or HSBC’s Naina Lal Kidwai, the glass ceiling remains a real challenge not only in developing countries such as India but at the international level too. Hillary Clinton’s failure to make the democratic nomination is a reiteration of the fact that despite many global leaders chipping away at this invisible barrier over long dec ades, it is not going to disappear in a hurry.

Ms Clinton began the race for the Democratic nomination as the strongest contender, but Mr Barack Obama appeared from almost nowhere to snatch away from her this well-deserved landmark. Brings back the unequivocal declaration made by an American journalist — a white woman — at an international meet held two years ago: “Americans are not ready for a woman President. Hillary won’t get the nomination; if by a miracle she does, she will lose”.

If the most developed country in the world is not yet ready to be led by a woman President, what about the status of working women elsewhere? More important, what are the perceptions of women when it comes to evaluating the importance of their own contribution at the workplace, particularly in comparison to the roles played by their male colleagues? Are they making any headway in climbing the corporate ladder and enjoying managerial or leadership roles? MasterCard Worldwide has recently released the findings of its survey on women’s advancement in the Asia Pacific region, which even while confirming some clichés, throws up surprises too.

One of the major surprises in this index is the relatively good showing by Malaysian women in improving their lot at the workplace. But Japanese women continue to get a raw deal and have ended up with a miserable score of 49.83 (a score of 100 indicates equality with men) in the 13 markets surveyed.

Philippines is the leader when it comes to women’s advancement with the highest score of 86.82; Hong Kong comes next at 77.37, closely followed by Malaysia in the third place with 76.89.

Significantly, it was in the South-East Asian region that the positive sentiment came through among women, while in the rest of the Asia Pacific markets there was a decline in the advancement index from 73.24 in 2007 to 70.38 in 2008.

Women’s socio-economic condition

This index measures the socio-economic level of women in relation to men by using four key indicators; two of these being the ratio of female to male participation in the labour force and tertiary education (the data is sourced from national statistics bureaus) and the other two based on survey data measuring the respondents’ perceptions on whether they hold managerial positions and earn above median income.

These “subjective factors are a gauge of how positively or negatively respondents feel about their place in the workforce,” said Ms Georgette Tan, Vice-President, Communications, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa, MasterCard Worldwide, who released the survey’s findings at the Global Summit of Women held in Hanoi, Vietnam from June 5-7.

She said in South-East Asia, the positive sentiment among women was clear. Four out of the six markets surveyed — Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam — achieved a higher index score in 2008 over 2007. In the remaining two markets — the Philippines and Singapore — only a slight decline was recorded over the same period.

In the rest of the Asia/Pacific region, five of the seven markets saw a decline. The greatest declines were recorded in New Zealand, China and Taiwan, indicating that women in these markets were not too upbeat about their positions in the workplace. In comparison, Hong Kong and Japan illustrated a slight improvement.

A significant finding of this survey was that compared to last year “fewer women consider their work roles ‘managerial’ or their income ‘above the median’. Comparative gender indicators in the index found that the number of women considering themselves above the median income level fell from 40 per cent to 37 per cent between 2007 and 2008 while men’s perceptions of their position in the workplace improved from 60 per cent to 63 per cent. “While women continue to close the gap in achieving parity with men in the areas of labour force participation and tertiary education, women’s self-perception regarding the subjective factors of the Index — managerial positions and above median income — have continued to dip for the second year in a row. This appears to indicate that women are feeling less confident about their current status, and whether due to the economic, political or social landscape, the direct result is that men’s confidence and resulting advancement is increasing to fill the gaps,” said Ms Tan.

So ultimately it all boils down to self-confidence and an upbeat feeling about the work you do. But, unfortunately, the survey found that even as newer avenues are opening up for women in the workforces, the tragedy is that women continue to believe they are not receiving the same opportunities as men.

Commenting on the results of the MasterCard survey, President of The Global Summit of Women Irene Natividad said: “It clearly shows that business and Government leaders in the Asia Pacific region should pay as much attention to lifting women off the “sticky floor” of entry-level employment, where women feel trapped, as they do with helping them break the ‘glass ceiling’ of senior management.”

At the Vietnam summit, over 900 delegates from 71 countries were gathered, including 35 women who were ministers.

Women’s participation in labour force

Some of the key findings:

Even though there are now three quarters as many women working in the Asia/Pacific region as men, there has been no significant increase in women’s participation. Over the four year period since the MasterCard survey began, women’s participation has increased only slightly in all the 13 markets of the region — from 75.07 in 2005 to 76.78 in 2008.

Vietnam’s economic growth is perhaps driven by women, because the market’s indicator score for women’s participation in the labour force reached 93.77 in 2008; there are 942 women for every 100 men in the Vietnam labour force — the nearest to parity of any market in the region.

Next comes New Zealand which has 88 women to every 100 men in the labour force.

Malaysia has the lowest number of women in the labour force — 59 women to 100 men.

Tertiary education participation

The most encouraging feature of this survey is that in tertiary education, women of Asia Pacific have done much better, with 93 women rubbing shoulders with every 100 men in this field. And the numbers have been improving every year. But the real shocker is the number in Malaysia where there are a staggering 135 women to every 100 men in tertiary education. The Philippines too has returned a positive number at 116 women for every 100 men, followed by Thailand (107) and New Zealand (103).

But the bad news is when it comes to personal perception of women on their participation in managerial positions. Across the Asia Pacific region, the number of women who perceive themselves to be in managerial positions has consistently decreased since 2006, reaching in 2008 a dismal index score of 52.85.

The most dramatic drop for this indicator was in China where the 2007 indicator score of 71.27 dropped to 55.94. “This means that in China there are now only just over half as many women (56 women to every 100 men) as there are men who perceive their roles to be managerial,” says Ms Tan.

Also, when it comes to perception of their income being above the median level, once again there was a drop — from 67.8 to 59. The most dramatic drop in perception regarding salary was in Taiwan where, in 2007, more women than men (113) perceived that they earned above the median wage; in 2008, this indicator score had dropped to only 68 women for 100 men. In New Zealand, there was a much more dramatic decline in the income perception — from 97 women per 100 men in 2007 to a miserable 42 women.

This then is the most depressing finding of the survey — a new low when it comes to women’s perception about themselves, their income and the role they play in the economy. Such low self-esteem does not auger well for the future role of women in nation-building, be it in Asia Pacific, India or the US.

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)

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