The benefits of diversity in a corporate setting are well established. Whether along gender lines or any other criteria, diverse perspectives make companies more agile, resilient, and better suited to serving their customers. The fact remains, however, that across much of the business world, women are still heavily in the minority. Traditionally, procurement, sourcing, and supply chain departments have been no different.
Luckily, it seems as though the tide is turning for women in procurement.
Procurement teams feel the benefits of gender parity
In a recent report surveying 300 Chief Procurement Officers in Europe, the US, and Asia, research firm Oliver Wyman found that the number of women working procurement was perceived to be on the rise. Over half (60%) of CPOs surveyed said that the number of women working in their procurement organisation was higher than just three years ago. Gender parity was highest in Europe, closely followed by the US. Asia trailed behind with less than a quarter of organisations surveyed having better than 40% parity.
Those interviewed said they were feeling the benefits. Over three quarters (76%) of executives reported perceiving “more creativity and innovation” in their teams thanks to the presence of women.
Procurement still has a long way to go to reach equality
However, while there has been progress, procurement has a long way to go before reaching a state of parity. More women than ever are working in the procurement sector, the report notes.
However, data showed that “women have not yet gained a secure hold on the highest levels of the function.” Women accounted for just 25% of procurement management committees and fewer than one in three buyers is a woman. Again, the global average skews closer to parity in Europe, and farther in Asia. At nearly half the procurement organisations in Europe and the US, women hold more than 40% of the function positions; in Asia, only 17% of the companies reach this level.
Different industries also have different levels of gender representation. In industrial and manufacturing sectors like aeronautics, women are “weakly” represented. Sectors like finance and public institutions, on the other hand, are much closer to equality.
The report notes this may be a feature of recruiting patterns and discrimination in hiring principles farther down the chain. This trend can be traced back into education, where women remain grossly underrepresented in many STEM fields.
Women occupy more senior positions in smaller companies
One surprising finding was that women in larger organisations were less likely to occupy a position of power within their procurement function than those in a smaller organisation, despite larger enterprises being more likely to have representation-based policies and hiring practices in place. The inherently conservative nature of larger corporations as opposed to mid sized enterprises could explain this trend.
Interestingly, the ratio of women in power fell again at the smallest end of the spectrum.
Women in procurement still face a world in which they receive fewer opportunities, and less recognition than their male counterparts. However, there are promising signs that the tide is changing. Albeit slowly, the world is moving towards a state where gender is evenly represented in the procurement sector. It also seems as though those organisations already making meaningful attempts towards gender parity are seeing the benefits.
“There is a growing body of evidence on how the gender composition of companies correlates with the bottom line. The case is strongest for senior executive teams, where multiple credible studies show that companies with the greatest gender balance in the C-suite are likelier to achieve above average financial results,” notes the report.
