'Bias, barriers prevent women to lead big businesses'

Admitting an invisible bias against women, various business leaders said corrective steps are needed to allow more women to take up leadership roles in the corporate sector.

Participating in an online event Giuseppe Busini, the deputy chief of the mission of the EU delegation in Thailand said that by 2025 an amount of $4.5 trillion can add up to the collective GDP of the Asia Pacific region alone by giving equal rights and opportunities to women.

The captains of various corporate groups, however, admitted the existence of an invisible bias against women right from assigning them duties to the promotion.

Citing an example, Director Franchise Operations of Coca-Cola Jonah De Lumen-Pernia said while men are promoted because of their potential, women get promotions based on their performances.

She further noted that unconsciously terms are used that denote gender bias like women are called aggressive and men are called assertive. Further women are described as emotional, while their male colleagues are called passionate.

“So, we needed to remove this unconscious bias in every part of the process," said Lumen-Pernia, while attending an event organized by the EU-funded WeEmpowerAsia program.

The event had brought together business leaders and policymakers to discuss tangible actions to help women advance into leadership positions and fully participate in economic progress.

"Women need to fairly flow into career progression from recruitment to retaining them and then promoting them. I believe this can happen if we remove two things first, we need to remove the bias, and secondly, we need to remove the barriers," she said.

Lumen-Pernia said the biases come into play against women during promotions.

"More often men are promoted on potential while women are promoted based on performance and it does not help women because they never feel ready enough. This is where the importance of mentorship and sponsorship comes in. We need leaders both men and women to help women navigate their career progression and give them a push when they have stepped out," she said.

The Coca-Cola manager said that realizing that women quit jobs, when they are family way, her company is now allowing women to take a break and pause their careers while having a baby.

Ravi Bhatnagar, the director of external affairs and partnerships at Reckitt Benckiser, said that they have allowed an increase in parental leave policy from 16 to 26 weeks. He said by 2022 his company is expecting 50% of leadership positions to be occupied by women.

"We go to universities, to business schools and tech schools to talk to all students especially females to raise the awareness and to talk about their right to do whatever they dream. So, we bring female leaders to campuses and they are the inspirational model," said Trinh Mai Phuong, the vice president of human resources at the Vietnam-based corporate group Unilever.