LUXURY INDIAN OCEAN BUSINESS
An ambitious African woman would be better off building a career in Togo or Burkina Faso than in Mauritius or Reunion . This is the conclusion to be drawn from the latest published reports on female / male diversity in company management . In the region , Mauritius stands out most of all . With just 30 % of women in “ senior or director positions ”, the country ranks 88 th globally , a far cry behind Botswana ( 54 %), Ivory Coast ( 56 %) Burkina Faso ( 58 %), or Togo ( 70 %), world champion at “ feminising ” management positions ( 1 ) .
Even more surprising is that out of Mauritius ’ s one hundred biggest companies , not one has a female CEO . Executive boards ? Strongholds at 87 % male . This imbalance is also found in the running of the State . While Mauritian senior civil servants are 39 % female ( 2 ) , they make up 20 % of the National Assembly and 12 % of the Cabinet . What does this tell us ? The rule is simple : the higher you go ; the rarer women are . In other words , the greater the responsibility , the less chance a woman has of taking it .
A fact that does not go unnoticed by Rima Ramsaran , president of the Mauritian association for female business leaders ( AMFCE ). Denouncing false agents of parity , she says : “ A lot companies say they are inclusive , but when you look closely at the make-up of their management and board , it is clear these companies don ’ t ‘ walk the talk ’. Women can progress well enough up to middle management , but higher management is private turf ” ( 3 ) . Unequal ? Undoubtedly . Inefficient ? You would think so .
The benefits of management equality no longer need to be spelled out . More women equals less homogenous thinking , and therefore more diverse opinions and ideas , greater collective intelligence and innovation and , as a direct consequence , greater competitiveness . “ We think gender diversity is a societal issue and an equality issue , but also an economic and performance issue ,” a specialist summarises . More concretely , companies with a larger proportion of women in their management bodies are also the ones that perform best financially .
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