deloitte_the_gender_dividend.pdf

The gender dividend:

Making the business case for

investing in women

By Greg Pellegrino, Sally D’Amato, and Anne Weisberg

Global Public Sector

Contents

Sidebars

Good sense, good business

Foreword by Sharon Allen, Chairman Deloitte United States (Deloitte LLP)

Why countries should care

Women and economic growth

Reaping the Gender Dividend, gaining competitive advantage

Taking a world view: Women and foreign relations

Interview with Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global

Women’s Issues

Why women, why now

Talent, markets, and the role of women

The gender dividend in action: the Deloitte Initiative

for the Retention and Advancement of Women (WIN)

Interview with Barbara Adachi, National Managing Partner for WIN,

Deloitte United States (Deloitte LLP)

Building the business case

Investing in women and the bottom line

One man’s take on WIN

Paul Silverglate, Strategic Client Partner, Deloitte United States (Deloitte LLP)

From intangible to intentional

Good sense, good business

Foreword by Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte United States (Deloitte LLP)

After reading this foreword and turning the page, the irst

words that you’ll see are what the Gender Dividend is all

about—women and economic growth.

Looking back, I believe that the deining moment in shaping

our culture was the decision to create WIN—made, inciden-

tally, by the men who led Deloitte at the time. By providing

new thinking about how women and men could relate as

leaders, business partners, and peers, the Women’s Initiative

has enabled us to provide a culture of lexibility for all of our

people. And, I might mention, it has been during the existence

of our Women’s Initiative that Deloitte has evolved as a leader

in diversity while becoming the largest private professional

services organization in the world.

Women and economic growth is a reality that has played out

quietly for centuries. Whether this reality has taken place in the

world’s most advanced economies or those that are rudimentary

(not to mention those recovering from the devastation of armed

conlict, excessive risk-taking, or ethical lapse), one constant

remains—the participation of women in economic activity has

and will continue to spur economic growth.

Why?

Such a truth knows no boundaries. In India and South America,

for example, visionary organizations like the Grameen Bank and

Pro Mujer extend microloans to women. The result—countless

businesses established and beginning to thrive. In the United

States, the changing face of business belongs to women, and

not just because of women’s recent emergence as the majority

of the United States workforce. Today, women in the United

States wield purchasing power in excess of an estimated US$5

trillion. Women actively use that power to buy half of all com-

puters, half of all cars, and more than 80 percent of all consum-

er purchases. They also represent nearly half of all shareholders.

Maybe because great value derives not only from women as

leaders, but also from the diversity of thought that women

can help provide. Deloitte is not alone in beneiting from this

phenomenon. In the pages that follow, you can read more

about the positive and often double-digit difference in

productivity between those organizations with more women

as leaders compared to those with less.

With such powerful results repeated time after time, it is

incumbent upon boards to make talent and diversity of talent

regularly scheduled items for discussion with senior manage-

ment. By initiating such focus and oversight at a time when

economic growth is greatly needed, boards can be responsive

to shareholders in search of returns, and stakeholders in search

of brands that are attuned to the full spectrum of consumers’

wants and needs.

It would seem to make sense, therefore, that businesses would

invest in developing women as workers, executives, and lead-

ers. But impressive results and sound logic have yet to fully take

hold in many parts of the world, including the United States. The

advancement of women pales in proportion to their numbers.

While some of the reasons are related to culture and custom, it’s

important to recognize that where organizations have invested in

the development of women, the results have been both profound

and dramatic.

You can learn far more in this report about the strong business

case for investing in women. But don’t just read about it.

With talented people and economic growth in high demand,

take the action that your organization needs to develop all of

its resources, men and women alike.

I speak from experience and irst-hand observation at Deloitte

United States, my professional home for the past 38 years. With-

out our Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women

(WIN)—begun in 1993 to stem the tide of talented women leav-

ing Deloitte—I may not have become the irst woman to serve as

chairman of a major professional services irm in the United States.

It makes for good sense and for good business—as well as the

Gender Dividend that could be yours.

Sincerely,

As beneicial as WIN has been for me, however, its impact on

our organization has been far more signiicant. Today, because

of our Women’s Initiative, our culture at Deloitte is very different

than it was nearly two decades ago. In fact, it is our culture of

values, high performance, and individual lexibility that so many

new hires say is what irst attracted them to Deloitte.

Sharon Allen is Chairman of Deloitte LLP

and economic growth

What will the next phase of sustainable economic

growth look like? Governments and businesses

are searching high and low for the answer. Some

are looking through the lens of geography—

will it be emerging markets or current economic

heavyweights? Others take it by industry—

technology or manufacturing? Services or retail?

While these are all relevant considerations, there’s

growing evidence that leaders around the world

in both the public and private sectors should

be examining this problem from an unexpected

vantage point: gender. Women may well be the

dominant source of economic growth in the near

future—and organizations that are able to capital-

ize on the roles women play as economic actors

will most likely have a competitive advantage as

the world pulls out of the global recession.

standing women as consumers and their impact

on the economy and the bottom line. Done

right, the Gender Dividend should be relected in

increased sales, expanded markets, and improved

recruitment and retention of a key talent segment.

“The future belongs to

those of us, female or

male, who can adopt

and embrace the femi-

nine archetype.”

Reaping the Gender Dividend, however, will

require going well beyond eliminating the explicit

discrimination that laws and policies have taken

aim at over the past decades. It will require a

concerted, strategic focus on how to fully integrate

women’s experiences, perspectives, and voices

into the fabric of an organization; as history has

shown, this will not happen on its own. Instead,

senior leaders must elevate women’s advancement

to a strategic objective tied to their overall plan for

growth—and having a business case is critical to

getting started.

John Hagel III ,

cofounder Deloitte Center

for the Edge,

Deloitte United States

Fully integrating women into both the work-

place and the marketplace can yield a signiicant

return—what can be called the Gender Dividend.

Much like the dividends that public corporations

pay to shareholders, the Gender Dividend is a

steady beneit that is earned by making wise,

balanced investments in developing women as

workers and potential leaders as well as under-

Women

Why women ,

To understand why it is so critical that women play

a key role in building—and rebuilding—economies

around the world, it’s important to consider the

rise of talent as a dominant business issue. In

the digital, knowledge economy, human capital

replaces natural resources as the basis for growth. 1

The businesses and countries that will lead in this

century will be the ones that are best able to har-

ness the innovation and creativity of their people.

Women are undoubtedly a growing force in the

talent pool. But the real power comes from women

and men working together and using their experi-

ence to solve complex problems and accelerate

innovation.

Historically, to encourage women in the work-

place, many countries have passed laws mandat-

ing equal treatment. Several governments are

even requiring that women make up a critical

mass of the boards of publicly traded companies.

But on their own, these laws have not ensured

that women are fully integrated as economic

actors. Women represent a signiicant percent-

age of the workforce —and college graduates

(see igure 1)—and yet have not reached a

proportional role in decision-making in some key

industries.

True, much progress has been made in putting

women on equal footing with men in the work-

place. But progress has stalled around the world,

including in developed countries like the United

States. This represents a large-scale underuse

of talent that can have serious repercussions in

terms of competitiveness both at the national

and organizational level. In the talent-driven 21st

century economy, it is a trend that can ill afford

to be sustained and the risks of doing nothing

are real.

The importance of gender diversity is also inextrica-

bly linked to the growing role of women as consum-

ers. As the spending power of women increases,

they represent a growth opportunity for companies;

but, because women tend to spend differently from

men, companies need to understand women’s pref-

erences in order to capitalize on this growth. Having

both women and men in decision-making roles gives

organizations the perspective they need to increase

sales and fuel growth.

Figure 1. Women’s Educational Attainment around the World

58%

Canada

61%

58%

Korea

45%

Australia

49%

why now

Japan

49%

Brazil

60%

China

57%

Russia

47%

UAE

65%

10 20 30 40 50 60

Sources: www.catalyst.org; Center for Work-Life Policy, The Battle for Female Talent in

Emerging Markets; All numbers are for 2009 except Japan (2006) and Korea (2005)

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