LOCAL corporations are more likely to provide development opportunities, such as financing postgraduate studies and offering trainings, to men than to women, a study by the Makati Business Club (MBC) showed.
Titled “Women in the Philippine C-Suite,” the MBC study reported female workers in executive positions were given fewer opportunities than their male counterparts. For one, 38 percent of male executives with graduate diplomas received company scholarships as opposed to 33 percent of women.
Most female leaders with postgraduate credentials had to finance their studies on their own (27 percent) or obtain support from their family (13 percent).
The study also said executives find it important that firms look after the welfare of its workers in order to retain talent. However, not all companies offer equal leadership training opportunities to men and women.
“Fewer women, 68 percent versus 80.6 percent of men, said they could access the leadership trainings of their respective companies. This finding simply means that few women attend the trainings offered by companies,” the MBC study read. “It also conforms with the information shared by the respondents that men are in a better position than women to pursue postgraduate courses and trainings sponsored by their companies.”
The study concluded these findings indicate that there is an imbalanced access between men and women, and that leadership roles in local firms are biased toward male employees even in modern-day corporate practice.
Also, although women and men respondents have nearly equal optimism on their skills, education and leadership potential, female workers are less confident to rise to top positions. The study claimed 70.4 percent of women have confidence to take on a leadership role immediately, as compared to 87.1 percent of men.
Further, 93.5 percent of men will willingly take on projects that will prepare them for executive titles, higher than the 86.4 percent recorded on women.
The MBC study obtained the inputs of 180 respondents, of which 103 are women and 77 are men, who were either middle managers or an executive of a local firm.
The respondents came from different industries, such as financial and insurance; professional, scientific and technical services; wholesale and retail; human, health and social work; and hospitality and food services. The MBC conducted the study in partnership with the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment and the Philippine Women’s Economic Network.