Women account for approximately only one in every five members of a board of directors in this country, according to the latest corporate directors’ compensation survey.
“The sales, trading, manufacturing & miscellaneous sector has the highest female to male proportion, with females accounting for 38 per cent of board membership. The banking & holding companies sector has the lowest female Board Membership, with women making up 17 per cent of their boards,” the 2022 Corporate Directors’ Compensation Survey stated.
The survey was presented in August by HRC Associates.
“This report is designed to provide organisations with key benchmark information on board structures, policies, and compensation practices. This report, representing our 12th Edition of the Corporate Directors’ Survey, includes data from a total of 50 leading private and public organisations in T&T representing four major industry sectors. This survey exercise was undertaken during the period March to June 2022,” it stated.
HRC Associated stated that during the survey, its consultants engaged several chairpersons and directors who shared their thoughts on the current climate and direction of corporate governance in T&T.
In addition to the data revealed in the survey, Hollick Rajkumar, the chief executive officer of HRC Associates stated that of the 318 executives within the 34 prominent companies in T&T that were analysed, 136 are women.
As such he said women hold 42.8 per cent of leadership positions within this sample of companies.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), employment-related gender gaps are greater than previously thought.
“A new indicator developed by the ILO, the Jobs Gap, captures all persons without employment that are interested in finding a job. It paints a much bleaker picture of the situation of women in the world of work than the more commonly used unemployment rate. The new data shows that women still have a much harder time finding a job than men,” it stated.
According to the brief, new data shine a light on gender gaps in the labour market, 15 per cent of working-age women globally would like to work but do not have a job, compared with 10.5 per cent of men.
This gender gap has remained almost unchanged for two decades (2005-2022).
“In contrast, the global unemployment rates for women and men are very similar, because the criteria used to define unemployment tends to disproportionately exclude women,” the ILO stated.
The jobs gap is particularly severe in developing countries where the proportion of women unable to find a job reaches 24.9 per cent in low-income countries.
The corresponding rate for men in the same category is 16.6 per cent, a worryingly high level but significantly lower than that for women.
“The gender gap in T&T is reflected at 21 per cent. Women in the labour force is 46.7 per cent versus men in the labour force registering at 68 per cent. What we are saying is despite significant progress in female labour force participation over the past 25 years, pervasive and ongoing gender differences remain in terms of participation, productivity and earnings. There is a gap and it remains a significant gap,” president of the human resource management Association of T&T Cavelle Joseph-St Omer stated.
Joseph-St Omer said women are more likely to supply fewer hours to the labour market versus men putting them at risk of being channelled into lower quality jobs as well.
‘It is a serious factor for us to consider,” she said.