Where do women stand at work?

While women make up 40% of the global workforce today, they are still considerably lacking in the boardroom. Only 5% of women currently occupy CEO level roles, and recruitment and consultancy firm Egon Zehnder predicts that it could take up to 20 years to achieve gender parity at boardroom level.

>See also: Women in IT Awards 2017: winners revealed

From a business point of view alone there is a strong case for ensuring industry gets more women into senior positions. Up to $12 trillion could be added to the global GDP by 2025 if companies do more to improve gender parity in the workplace, according to a 2015 McKinsey Global Institute report.

Global research firm MSCI ESG also found that having more female representation at board level could generate a return on equity of 10.1% per year as opposed to 7.4% without.

In short, more needs to be done to turn presence into influence. Women don’t hold the same leadership positions as men and this prevents them from having a proper say in key business decisions when it really matters.

The female role in business travel

Although the business travel industry workforce as a whole is dominated by women, it is no exception to this rule that men are the ruling class. A 2012 Business Travel News poll found that men managing travel were twice as likely to become vice presidents, and yet 63% of all travel managers polled were women.

Egencia is taking steps to address this imbalance. It’s parent company Expedia recently achieved gender parity across its global workforce and at Egencia, it’s aiming to achieve the same.

The company applied its culture of science and data driven innovation to its efforts in gender parity, boasting inclusive hiring practices and offering equal pay for men and women in similar roles and locations around the world.

>See also: Chief of MI6 reveals real-life ‘Q’ is female in rare speech at 2017 Women in IT Awards

It also hosts an annual inclusive leadership summit, and offer flexible working hours that caters to all working parents – men and women – among our staff.

Not only is there a moral imperative to achieve gender equality and across the business travel sector, there is also a strong business case.

Women are the fastest growing segment of business travellers, so having women in senior positions to understand the needs of this segment when developing products and services is key.

Moreover, nearly one in two (47% of) female travellers now do so exclusively for business. This means it’s even more crucial that women are involved at every stage of the business travel management process. By having an equal share in decision making, women can cater more competently for the needs of other female travellers.

Gender parity will give businesses access to a more diverse pool of talent, enable them to build stronger teams and as a result, help provide better solutions to customers. In today’s competitive global economy, the companies that take gender parity seriously, will be the ones that step ahead.

Sourced by Tristan Smith, VP global transportation of Egencia