If you're a woman who is graduating from college this Spring and ready to travel the world, here's some good news. The glass ceiling that has been keeping women from rising to the top of senior management in the U.S. is shattering in emerging economies around the globe.
According to a new report by Grant Thornton/Forbes Insights (PDF) women in senior management roles in "mature" markets around the world has now risen to 24 percent.
With only 21 percent of women in senior management in the U.S., is America at risk of a "brain drain?" The answer is probably "Yes," as corporate executives shop the world for talent to manage their fast-growing businesses. And here's the reason: America lags behind other mature economies with only 21 percent of senior management positions filled by women.
What is even more striking about the "Women in Senior Management" report is the accelerating pace of women moving up the corporate ladder everywhere except America.
The percentage of female executives in China, for example, rose sharply to 51 percent (compared with 25 percent last year). In fact the Asia Pacific region reported a much higher percentage of women at the top, 29 percent, compared with women in senior leadership in the European Union (25 percent) and Latin America (23 percent).
Mei Hui, from the China Financial Futures Exchange offers this key insight for women's success in China:
If there can be more planning and implementation of programmes and policies to offer more opportunities for women, including internships for female students, apprenticeships and promotion structures, this would help women in the corporate hierarchy.
With women now making up 60 percent of the student population at universities in the U.S. and 70 percent at community colleges, America's "best and brightest" young women just so happen to posses the education, talent, and skill sets that are exactly what management around the world wants to hire for today's fast paced IDEA economy.
Award-winning author, Alexia Parks, has made a new, ground-breaking discovery on the New Science of a woman's brain. In Hardwired 10 Traits, she has shown that women's brains are literally hardwired by evolution with the traits needed for leadership of today's complex, interconnected world..