Despite more women entering the Hong Kong workforce, few make it to senior management positions

Women in Hong Kong still have a long way to go before they achieve gender equality in the workplace, despite improvements in the percentage of female workers in high positions over the past year.

Just 29 per cent of management positions in Hong Kong are held by women, making it the second lowest ranked region in Asia. The city stands above Japan, where only 22 per cent of management positions are held by women, according to the 2018 Hays Asia Salary Guide, but below the Asian average of 31 per cent.

Malaysia was the highest ranked region in Asia, at just 38 per cent, followed by mainland China and Singapore at 31 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

“At the heart of this lies the current status quo on a societal level, not only in Hong Kong but regionally – and even globally,” said Kiersten Barnet, deputy chief of staff to the chairman at Bloomberg, which has just released its 2018 gender equality index. “The irony is that the region also has highly educated women with strong work experience who contribute to economic growth in their own right.”

Despite more women entering the workforce, few are advancing to senior positions when compared with men. According to government statistics, the labour force participation rate for women in Hong Kong increased from 49 per cent in 2001 to 55 per cent in 2016.

But despite an amendment in 2013 by the Hong Kong stock exchange that requires companies listed in the city to disclose if they have adopted a diversity policy, or explain their reasoning if not, there has not been a significant increase in women on boards of directors, according to a 2017 study by multinational company Deloitte.