Home > Career > Womenomics 101: The Leaders

Womenomics 101: the leaders

Mon 08 March 2010

, Alberta Opoku, Leap

Unilever, KPN, Rabobank and Ahold are the top four of the ten Dutch corporates in the Womenomics 101 survey: focus on The Netherlands (download PDF). The survey was run by UK-based consultancy 20-First, LEAP and Erasmus University’s Dr Mijntje Lückerath.

“From the start of my career, I’ve been trying to put gender balance and diversity on our corporate agenda. And I know Unilever is still working hard on this issue,” Kees van der Waaij, chairman of Unilever Netherlands, told LEAP at our Leadership event. Unilever is rewarded for its efforts as the home, personal care and foods products company is among the top four Dutch corporates in the survey.

Only 4 women

The four leading Dutch companies in gender balance – Ahold, KPN, Rabobank and Unilever - have one woman in their executive committee. Among the 77 people at the executive committee level of the Netherlands’ top 10 companies, only 4 are women. 3 of them are in line / operational roles, 1 of them holds a staff or support position. Of the top 10 companies in the Netherlands, the majority (60%) doesn’t have a single woman on their executive committee.

Executive committee

Erasmus University’s Dr Mijntje Lückerath, known from the annual Dutch Female Board Index, conducted the Dutch Womenomics 101 survey. Gender balance in the executive committee was the centre of the study.
“That comprises the people who are actually involved in the decision-making at the top level of a company. The study therefore purposely excluded commissioners and supervisors. The executive committee in this case is more than the executive or management board, as it also includes those people who report directly to the chief executive officer. Depending on the organization at study, this group of decision makers are sometimes called the executive committee, management committee or simply executives,” Mijntje clarifies.
Erica van Ooyen, founder and director of LEAP, says comprising only the executives, as the survey does, really shows the actual decision makers in an organization. “This takes the gender balance debate to a higher level.” 

Largest companies

The companies in the Womenomics 101 survey: focus on The Netherlands were selected from the Fortune Global 500. These are the 500 largest companies worldwide, of which a significant number is quoted on the stock exchange. Some 13 Dutch companies are on this list, but the Womenomics 101 Survey: focus on the Netherlands comprised the ten largest: Ahold, Akzo Nobel, Gas Terra, Heineken, ING, KPN, Philips, Rabobank, Shell and Unilever.

International comparisons

“We used the methodology designed by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox of 20-First,” Mijntje explains. “This allows us to make objective international comparisons. And that is instrumental in the international debate about gender balance in the corporate top.”
In the global Womenomics 101 Survey, 89% of American companies had at least one woman at executive committee level, while only 32% of European companies and 18% of Asian companies did.

‘Too important for men only’

Since only 4 out of the 77 people at the executive committee level of the Netherlands’ top 10 companies are women, gender balance isn’t in sight yet in the Netherlands. Unilever Netherlands’ Kees van der Waaij recognises much needs to be done still. “It would be a waste of money and other resources if we didn’t use the talents that women have. Businesses and organisations are too important to be left to men alone!”

 

WOMENOMICS 101 is a globally run survey by 20-First, one of the world’s leading gender consultancies. The Womenomics 101 survey: focus on The Netherlands was run by 20-First in partnership with LEAP, the business community for female leadership and Dr Mijntje Lückerath from Erasmus University, Rotterdam.