Unlocking women’s potential to enhance corporate performance
Since 2007, McKinsey & Company has been making a business case for increasing the number of women in senior management positions. In a series of Women Matter research reports, it has argued that companies benefit from access to the different but complementary leadership skills and insights women bring to management, as well as a wider talent pool. Indeed, the research shows stronger financial performance at companies with a greater proportion of women on executive committees.1
We studied 345 listed companies in six countries2 in Latin America, examining their financial results and the gender composition of their executive committees. The results showed a link between the two in all countries and in all business sectors: companies with one or more women on their executive committees outperformed those with all-male committees. Their returns on equity were 44 percent higher, and their EBIT margin 47 percent higher (Exhibit 1).