Management consultants McKinsey and Co have been making the business case for employing women in more senior positions. Their research shows that companies with women on executive committees and their corporate boards perform significantly better than those that have no women on them. One explanation for this is that a lot of talented women are being ignored in seeking people for senior positions.

Not surprisingly, their research showed women were less likely to occupy senior positions in Asia than in Europe. Companies in this part of the world generally have seen little need to recruit and develop female talent. It is clear that the efforts which have been made in many Western countries to give women more equality in the work place is beginning to pay dividends.

workforce in Malaysia, one of the lowest among the countries surveyed. This compares to close to 70% in the UK and USA. Around 57% of graduates are women so there is no shortage of well educated females available, they just tend to exit the workforce earlier. Singapore has a higher percentage of women in senior positions and McKinsey estimates that if Malaysia could increase their rates to those of Singapore it would add between RM6 billion and RM9 billion to its GDP. These kinds of estimates are hard to validate but one thing which cannot be disputed is the large number of companies in Malaysia that complain about a lack of talent available at senior levels. This would clearly appear to be an area which would benefit from greater attention by the government as well as Malaysian businesses.