A recent survey shows China is among the top-10 places in the world to have female board members. Women in China are making their mark on the country's business world.
According to a survey released by Grant Thornton International, a leading global accounting organization, women in China hold more than a third of the country's company management positions.
Rose Zhou is the partner of Grant Thornton International and the supervisor of their Shanghai office's taxation department.
"The percentage of female senior managers in China is higher than the global average. Women hold 38 percent of corporate senior management positions in China, compared with an average of 24 percent globally."
The survey also shows women occupy 21 percent of positions on company boards in China, beating the global average of 17 percent, which ranked China ninth among 44 polled countries.
Thailand topped the list with 37 percent, followed by the Philippines at 31 percent. Italy and Russia tied for third at 29 percent.
Rose Zhou adds that China's family planning policy is one of major things that boosted the percentage of female senior executives in the country.
"Because if one family only has one child, even if she's a girl, is also supposed to shoulder the responsibility of raising the family, just as a boy would be expected to do. So women in such an era have a stronger sense of independence, which resulted in a higher percentage of female senior executives in China."
The survey polled 6,700 companies worldwide, including 200 from the Chinese mainland.
However, Jia Yunzhu, a researcher at the Women's Studies Institute of China, says that although China has achieved remarkable progress in breaking the glass ceiling for women in business, it still lags behind in terms of providing sufficient support for career women.
"Especially nowadays, educating and raising children are more demanding compared to the past. It requires women to put a lot more effort into it. So women in general lack the public policy and service support when they need to balance the responsibility of taking care of kids and achieving career progress when facing fierce competition in the workplace."
The survey also finds that only 15 percent of businesses on the mainland provide training programs that facilitate a path for female employees to senior executive jobs. Nearly seven in 10 companies admitted they never considered tailored training workshops for female employees.
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