Men dominate in Russian business

6 March 2007 — Just before International Women’s Day, PricewaterhouseCoopers presented its survey, prepared jointly with the Moscow Centre for Gender Studies, ‘Career Development Opportunities for Women in Business’. The survey revealed that the share of women executives is still very small, and companies do not make any special efforts to achieve a gender balance.

The survey covered 45 companies from Expert magazine’s list of 100 largest companies in Russia. Results show that the number of male employees exceeds the number of women employees only slightly, by 5%, in the companies surveyed. The number of women holding executive positions decreases moving up the position scale. Women traditionally prevail in the position of Chief Accountant (82%), but the position of Financial Director is primarily occupied by men (78% vs. 22% women). Other positions held by women include: head of Human Resources (62%), head or deputy head of Marketing and Sales (42%), Financial Director (22%). Meanwhile, top managers are mainly men: 96% of General Directors and 86% of board directors. Men have been prevailing in recent appointments to top executive positions (74%), which gives ground to conclude that they will continue to dominate executive positions in the future.

The poll showed that on the whole, companies do not make a concerted effort to reward female executives. Only 4% of companies have special programmes aimed at engaging women executives. The rights and interests of women are generally considered on a common basis — only 11% of companies have special “women’s” associations.

Companies tend not to differentiate compensation levels for men and women (in 89% of respondents there are no differences between the salaries of men and women holding the same positions). This also applies to top management — according to the survey, the salary does not depend on gender in 96% of cases.

Corporate policy on maternity leave mainly reflects the “men’s” view of the issue. The majority of companies (69%) do not have any retraining programmes for women returning after maternity leave. This may be explained by the fact that the majority of companies do not think that maternity leave has any impact on a woman’s career development (62%). Maternity grants over the statutory amounts under the Labor Code are not common (awarded in 38% of cases). According to the survey, on average, women take maternity leave for 18 months.

Approximately half of the companies in the survey give working mothers the option to work part-time (49%) and provide them with medical insurance (47%). A flexible work schedule and short week are less common (42%). Only 11% of companies allow female employees to work from home. The majority of companies (67%) have these types of benefits for all working mothers, without exception. Some companies (21%) offer them only on an individual basis, to certain categories of employees or top managers.

Information for the editor:

1. For additional information please call Vera Totskaya, PR Manager.
2. The survey was held in January–February 2007. The survey covered HR heads of 45 Russian and foreign companies operating in the Russian Federation. Companies with more than 2,000 employees formed the basis of the survey (more than half of the all the companies under survey).
3. PricewaterhouseCoopers provides industry-focused assurance, advisory and tax services to public and private companies to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 146,000 people in 150 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.