Female leaders bridge gender gap but more needed

Female leaders bridge gender gap but more needed

Women will play an even more important role in the fast-changing spheres of global business and politics, a Bangkok seminar heard yesterday.

Yuwadee Chirathivat, president of Central Department Store, was among prominent women who joined the Asia’s Power Business Women forum in Bangkok. SOMCHAI POOMLARD

Asia's top female executives at the Forbes Forum: Asia's Power Business Women recognised the potential of women to contribute to management, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity as they are empowered by determination and technology.

Besides their femininity, their leadership benefits from an ability to pay attention to details and to foster relationships with colleagues and staff.

Lim Hwee Hua, a former minister in Singapore's Prime Minister's Office, said knowledge-based technology has created an equal playing field between the genders.

Kyung Yoon, chief executive of South Korea-based Talent Age Associates, said women executives have a strength in the business world by tending to be "trust builders", which allows them to nurture relationships horizontally and achieve boardroom positions.

The world has to take responsibility in creating a more equitable workplace in terms of gender, she said.

Manal AlBayat, group chief executive of Dubai-based Falcon and Associates, said understanding the dual role women have to play as professionals and mothers will help female professionals to play a robust role in the workplace.

Helpful measures would include better acceptance for pregnant women and allowing women to work from home.

Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, chief executive of Indonesia's Sintesa Group, said breakthrough government policies are needed to promote greater female leadership worldwide, especially in education.

As a top executive and a daughter of the company's founder, she had found it a challenge to earn people's trust that she was up the task, but she transformed her company from a family business to a professionally run operation.

Cheung Yan, chairwoman and founder of China's Nine Dragons Paper Group, said that setting up a business is difficult but keeping the business is harder.

"I started a business on my own. When you are heading the company, you have to work very hard with the ability to have decisive judgement. You can make minor mistakes but not major ones and have to find ways to minimise making mistakes," said Ms Yan.

Jing Ulrich, managing director and chairman of global markets for JPMorgan China, said the number of female top executives in the finance industry is relatively small, but there is no reason to think that it will remain so.

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