NewFor top Hong Kong accountant: childcare, flex hours to boost women in climbing corporate ladder
Half of Hong Kong accountants are women but so far only two presidents of the industry body are female in its 43 year history.
The newly elected president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants urged the government and corporations to do more to help women break the glass ceiling so they can get to the top of the business world in the city.
Ivy Cheung Wing-han became only the second female president of the industry body in the more than four decades of its history. Half of the 40,000 member organisation are women, but the first woman president of the HKICPA, Susanna Chiu, was elected only three years ago.
Even though there are equal numbers of men and women at the entry level of professions and corporations, the board rooms or top chief executives are still dominated by men. Only 10 per cent of the directors in listed companies are women, compared with 17 to 40 per cent in countries outside Hong Kong.
“This showed the government and the companies would need to do more to encourage women to break the glass ceiling of the corporate world,” Cheung said.
A partner in KPMG, she said she has not experienced any discrimination in her professional life. The reasons why few women become directors or senior executives, she believes, are simply due to the fact that women traditionally have had to handle more of the family duties and childcare.
“If the companies and government can offer better child care and allow women to have flexible working hours to take care of their families and children, it would encourage women to climb higher in the corporate ladder,” she said. “A diverse board would benefit companies if we have directors with different gender, ages and background.”