Corporate Kenya is still a man’s world, says gender equity report

PUBLISHED ON November 20th, 2019

Corporate Kenya is still a man’s world, says gender equity report

Women still lag behind in Kenya’s corporate sector management with only 22 per cent representation in the managerial positions, a report on gender equality in the workplace shows.

Further, no company has achieved a gender balance at all four levels, that is, board, executive, senior management and general workforce.

In totality, women account for 23 per cent of board members up from 21 percent in 2017.
According to The Gender Equality In the Workplace Report jointly prepared by the NSE, Equileap and New Faces New Voices and launched on November 13 in Nairobi, of the 60 firms listed on the National Securities Exchange, only seven were headed by women.

The report looks into four parameters in ranking the firms, that is, commitment, transparency and accountability, gender balance in leadership and workforce, equal compensation as well as work-life balance, policies promoting gender equality.

Of the 60 firms surveyed, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya led with a score of 63 per cent while Nairobi Business Ventures closed the list with a 3 per cent score.

Diana van Maasdijk, chief executive officer of Equileap said a firm that scored above 40 per cent was considered to be performing better in enhancing gender equality values at the workplace.

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