European Chamber Women in Business Report 2022 Go back »

2022-12-06 | All chapters

Beijing, 6^th December 2022 – The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (European Chamber) today released a report that provides an overview of the progress some of the largest European companies operating in China have made in promoting gender diversity in leadership roles, as well as in their general workforce. The Women in Business Report 2022 builds on the framework of the European Round Table for Industry’s (ERT) 2022 report Women in Leadership Positions, and lists figures related to women’s share in the workforce as well as voluntary targets set by companies to promote gender diversity.

In addition to the figures and targets, the report also introduces some of the policies and initiatives that companies have in place—both in-house and at the broader society level—to support women at all stages of their career.

As the report shows, companies still face some challenges when it comes to increasing female representation in certain areas. The figures listed in the report often echo these challenges: while at some European companies’ China operations women’s share in the workforce have already surpassed 50 per cent, others still find it difficult to catch up. To address this, several firms have practices in place to eliminate unconscious gender bias or mitigate the impact of factors that disproportionately affect women in the workplace.

The European Chamber also actively takes part in promoting gender diversity among top leadership within its member companies. First launched in late 2019, the Chamber’s Cross-industry Mentor Initiative (CIMI) has already concluded three cycles, all focussed on improving female representation at the highest corporate level.

“European companies have an important role to play in fostering gender diversity in China,” said Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, “as their best practices can benefit all companies that are ready to create an inclusive workplace.”

“Since there is still some way to go in promoting female representation in business, it is important to keep up the discussion about where the difficulties lie, while also celebrating successes,” said Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China and Chair of the Chamber’s Shanghai Chapter. “Once the challenges are clearly understood, companies can take concrete steps that can even catalyse change outside the scope of business.”

Download the report here.

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