Eight firms awarded for women on corporate boards

KARACHI: Women On Boards (WOB), an initiative of the South Asian Federation of Exchanges, aims to influence a higher gender balance on corporate boards and expects at least 25 percent female representation on corporate boards in Pakistan.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has joined hands with WOB Pakistan to address the acute under-representation of women professionals on the boards and other leadership positions in listed companies.

In this regard, a W-Corporate Enlistment Award ceremony was held at the bourse on Wednesday and eight companies were conferred the awards for having independent women professionals on their boards.

Speaking on the occasion, PSX managing director Nadeem Naqvi said the ceremony was the first recognition of women on boards of Pakistan’s corporate sector. “It is a misperception that men only can have leadership role in the corporate world. Women are contributing towards economy as well as society and they excel at what they do,” Naqvi said and added, “women are more ethical in their dealings.”

Independent director at PSX, Rahat Kaunain Hasan said the initiative was not about empowering women; instead it was about empowering corporate boards and empowering economy. “Women comprising about half of the country’s population need to be utilised for the betterment of the economy.”

She said there were less than one percent independent/unrelated professional women directors on the publicly listed corporate sector because there was not enough pool. “We need to create an enabling environment for women professionals to increase their representation in senior management and boards,” Kaunain said. Later, Kaunain Hasan, Unilever Foods CEO Shazia Saeed, and UBL deputy CEO Sima Kamil rang the gong to commence trading at the bourse.

A review of the largest corporations of Pakistan, which are part of the KSE-100 Index, reveals that women representation on the boards of these companies is less than 4.0 percent. These companies have a total of 35 women directors against a total population of 878 directors. This trend is similar for most other management positions held by women in the country’s corporates. Adding to this dismal representation is an extremely low participation of women in the workforce, which is about 28 percent, compared to almost 50 percent share of women in the country’s population. WOB initiative is an attempt to address the acute imbalance of women professionals on the corporate boards and higher management hierarchy in Pakistan. WoB advocates increased representation of women on corporate boards and enhanced business leadership and economic empowerment opportunities for them.