How are women faring in the workforce throughout the world? How does the east compare to the west? According to a study recently released by Swiss bank UBNS Group AG, there is a major increase in the amount of women who are billionaires throughout the world. A lot of them, the study found, are from the Asia region, in the last decade, up to 25 from three. Many of these female Asian billionaires are from China and Hong Kong and over half made their own money themselves, a lot of it coming from real estate investments.
Indeed, looking back over the last two decades, it seems that the amount of female billionaires has increased seven times with the average wealth almost doubling to $4.3 billion, which is more than the average amount a male billionaire has – $4 billion net worth. Although men still comprise the majority of billionaires, women still made up 11 percent last year which is an increase of 9 percent 20 years ago.
However, moving over to Europe, a recent report from Mercer showed that the billionaire bug is not exactly the same for women. Indeed, it is being predicted that there will be a halt in the increase of women in broad professional ranks of Europe’s leading employers. This seems inconsistent with the significant advances women have made in top executive roles.
Still, in more positive news it is forecasted that there will be an increase of 21% to 33% by 2025 in the “share of women in executive ranks” in Europe. The somewhat strange contradictory phenomenon is explained by Principle in Mercer’s Workforce Analytics, Julia Howes. She said: “Quotas in Europe have had a big impact in boosting female representation in senior roles. But there’s a disturbing revolving door. While firms are focused on recruiting women at the top, it doesn’t appear they’re keeping them…and that could threaten the progress they’ve made, unless they act now.”