DIVERSITY IN GENDER AND CULTURE
Extraordinarily multicultural, with sales and operations across the globe, Chayora is gender parity equal – we currently employ 50% male and 50% female staff. Chayora co-founder Steven Cao and EVP Customer Relations Karen Kesner are WEC Co-Representatives.
THE CHALLENGES ACROSS THE GLOBE
According to Grant Thornton’s Women in Business Report 2021, the number of women holding senior leadership positions, (mostly in midmarket businesses), has only reached 31%. This is only up 2% from previous years, despite the global pandemic.
In the Technology sector this gap is also too wide. A career in computing, technology, and IT, has previously been seen as more of a ‘male’ career path. Companies in the tech sector globally, are all trying actively to improve the gender gap, with events such as “Balance in the Boardroom”.
In China,women still face the same challenges developing their chosen career path. China only ranks 106 out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2020. At entry level, women make up about 50% of the workforce. But in terms of advancement to senior positions, this proportion decreases significantly.
Nowadays, Chinese companies are reaching great success and have become major international names. Many were born in the Internet era with strong technical capabilities. However only 9.4% of board members of Chinese public companies are women, compared with the global average of 33%.
Elsewhere in the world, Corporate Boards in Western countries are still heavily dominated by men. Only in recent years many companies have added more women in response to pressure from investors, regulators and consumers. Now, all of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index have at least one female director. Currently female directors make up 28.8% of board seats.
In California, mandate has been established to require most publicly traded local companies to have at least three female directors by the end of 2021, according to Bloomberg.
In Singapore, President Halimah Yacob, the country’s first female head of state created a government diversity council. This body has set targets to achieve 25% female board representation by 2025, and 30% by 2030.
CHAYORA’S PERSPECTIVE
Unlike many corporate organizations, Chayora, doesn’t work to ‘quotas’ to drive up gender parity. We currently support a 50 – 50 male/female ratio. Our company benefits from highly skilled and experienced business leaders, and we believe in appointing the right person for the job and selection based on experience, commitment and ability with no distinction drawn on gender. This approach naturally encourages the most flexible approach to diversity.
We at Chayora fully acknowledge and value the contribution to our business from our entire team. We have attracted a brilliantly talented group of individuals. We all share a joint passion for growing Chayora into a successful business; whoever they are and wherever in the world they may be located!
We want to be known as a company that people want to work for. That means offering interesting roles, supporting career ambitions, and enabling personal growth. We believe we should reward people for their achievements irrespective of their gender or culture. This means remaining neutral on matters of achievement and being supportive where personal circumstances require it.
Chayora is showing its commitment to WEC by having appointed two co-representatives, Karen Kesner and Steven Cao. Karen said, “I am committed to working with my co-members in WEC toward continued awareness and impact in 2022 and leading our passion in recruiting additional WEC members.”
To read full newsletter article, please visit https://womenempowermentcouncil.com/newsletter/.
