Where to build aleadership careerNew global dataon womenin managementPage 3

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Talent shortageMining careersoffer fast­trackopportunities inSouth AfricaPage 4

Female techsuccessRussia’s start­upfounders findspringboard to topPage 5

Two­tier systemStellar careers arepossible in Turkeybut many womenare shut outPage 6

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FT SPECIAL REPORT

Women in Business Emerging MarketsFriday March 7 2014 www.ft.com/reports | @ftreports

Women cheered, somemen booed, but every-one took notice whenChristine Lagardequipped in 2010 that had

Lehman Brothers been Lehman Sis-ters, the global financial crisis mighthave looked different.

It was only half a joke. As MsLagarde, France’s finance minister atthe time and now head of the Interna-tional Monetary Fund, later wrote:“When women are called to action intimes of turbulence, it is often onaccount of their composure, sense ofresponsibility and great pragmatismin delicate situations.”

Perhaps surprisingly, it is an argu-ment that emerging markets have rec-ognised better than the developedworld. Amid a growing internationaldebate on bridging the gender gap,

the rapid economic growth of emerg-ing markets in recent years hasgreatly increased opportunities forwomen in business, giving them aboost over their counterparts in devel-oped countries.

This would seem to contradictperceptions dominant in the westof women in developing nations. Themore prevalent image is that traditionand social mores in many of thesecountries, as well as educational andeconomic disadvantages, limitwomen’s empowerment in business.

To some extent the perceptionsreflect reality: although women leadArgentina, Brazil and Chile, 70 percent of executives in Latin Americasay family pressures cause women toleave their jobs, according to a surveyby McKinsey, the consultancy.

In China, women are still expected

to put their families first, an attitudereinforced by the one-child policy.Chinese women are also expected totake care of the elderly in the family.

“Observers in the west tend to seethird-world women as victims,” writeSylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashidin their 2011 book Winning The Warfor Talent in Emerging Markets: WhyWomen are the Solution. “In a similarvein, business leaders tend not tohave women on their radar screen.

“The fact is that no company canafford to ignore highly qualifiedfemale talent if it wants to compete inthese fast-expanding economies – andwin,” the authors say.

According to Grant Thornton’s 2014Women in Business report, which sur-veyed about 6,600 privately ownedcompanies in 45 countries, the propor-tion of senior roles filled by womenacross the Brics countries (Brazil,Russia, India, China and SouthAfrica) exceeds 30 per cent, comparedwith about 20 per cent in the G7 groupof industrialised nations, and higher

than the 24 per cent global average.Some statistics are striking: in Chinamore than 60 per cent of chief finan-cial officers are women.

Across the Brics, the percentage ofcompanies that have no women insenior roles has fallen from 39 per centlast year to 18 per cent this year. Inthe boardroom too, women in emerg-ing markets score better than the glo-bal average.

This special report sheds furtherlight on that progress, with datashowing that in China about 30 percent of entrepreneurs are women.

Six out of 24 self-made female bil-lionaires worldwide on the Forbes2013 list are from China (includingHong Kong), more than any othercountry outside the US.

Continued on Page 2Crowded: Mumbai commuters ride in a train’s women­only compartment Getty

‘No company can afford toignore female talent if itwants to compete in thesefast­expanding economies’

Ambitionand growthhelp narrowgender gapMany developing nations have higher ratios offemale executives than advanced countries, butchange is slow at the bottom. By Roula Khalaf

2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 7 2014

Roula KhalafForeign editor

James WilsonMining correspondent

Amy KazminSouth Asia correspondent

Amie TsangWorld desk researcher

Amy StillmanCorrespondent,LatAm Confidential

Piotr ZalewskiFreelance journalist

Isabel GorstFreelance journalist

Helen BarrettCommissioning editor

Andy MearsPicture editor

Steven BirdDesigner

For advertising details,contact Jon Moncure, emailjohn.moncure@ft.com, orMark Carwardine, emailmark.carwardine@ft.com, oryour usual FT representative.

Contributors »

In Turkey, meanwhile,12 per cent of chief execu-tives are women, accordingto the World Bank, higherthan the EU average.

“Emerging markets doseem really to value someof the things that womenbring to boards and seniorroles,” says FrancescaLagerberg, global head oftax at Grant Thornton.

“The approach to busi-ness is different and there’sa real recognition that inno-vation and creativity aresometimes more closelylinked to female leaders.”

What lies behind thenumbers? One factor is edu-cation: as the authors ofWinning the War For Talentpoint out, women in emerg-ing markets are graduatingfrom universities and grad-uate schools at rates thatmatch and often outstripthose of men.

Family and tradition canwork to women’s advan-tage. In China, and in coun-tries of the former SovietUnion, women’s participa-

Continued from Page 1 tion in the labour force hasbeen encouraged; in con-servative societies close-knit extended families andaffordable help can make iteasier for women to work.

The need for women tocontribute to the householdincome has been a driver ofambition – but more jobsalso have been available.

Saadia Zahidi, head ofgender parity and humancapital at the World Eco-nomic Forum, says: “If youhave large, fast-growingcompanies – say you gofrom 50 to 500 posts [in acompany] – the need for tal-ent overcomes barriers thatmay exist.”

Institutional backing forworking women has alsohelped, with growing sup-port for remote workingarrangements, flexible hoursand paid maternity leave.

Imposing quotas can beless controversial than inEurope. Ms Lagerberg saysmore and more businessleaders in emerging mar-kets say they back boardquotas for women. “It’s tell-ing that people engaged inthis are beginning to see

where it should go. It mightbe that quotas come in sev-eral years’ time, but busi-ness leaders are becomingmore conscious about proc-ess,” she says.

There is still a long wayto go. And the risk is thatthe progress achieved so farwill not be accelerated asgrowth in emerging econo-mies begins to slow.

Far too many women stillface social pressures toleave their jobs after havingchildren; their entrepre-neurial drive is also stifledby constrained access tocredit. The wage gap shouldalso narrow. Even if theymight receive equal pay tomen when they join thelabour force, women findthe disparity widens as theymove up the organisation.

Ms Lagerberg cites theneed for more role modelsand mentoring to pushwomen up the corporateladder. “The more you seesenior women in role mod-elling positions, the moreyou inspire others to comethrough. You need [mentor-ing] programmes with aspecific diversity element.”

Other experts warn thatimprovements at the top donot necessarily mean pro-gress at the bottom. Thepicture for senior women inemerging markets may bebrighter than in the west,but women’s participationin the labour force is lowerthan in Europe or the US.

Ms Zahidi says that inrapidly growing economiessuch as Brazil, China andIndonesia, women are join-ing the labour force at rela-tively faster rates thanmen.

But in India, women’sparticipation in the work-force has risen only 4 percent, to 34 per cent, in the

past eight years. “In India, apolicy was just passed[which means] all publiclylisted companies have tohave one female director onboard . . . and there’s atrend to get more women inleadership positions.

“But this is also the coun-try where a lot of the pov-erty and illiteracy is con-centrated among females,”Ms Zahidi says. “Because ofcultural impli-cations yousee a diver-g e n c eb e t w e e nlow- andhigh-incomewomen.”

Ambition and growth help narrow gender gap

Women in Business Emerging Markets

People from “developed”markets often ask me whatprogress professionalwomen are making inemerging-market countries.I turn the question around:“What progress are womenmaking in your country?”

My experience suggeststhere is little difference inthe barriers faced byprofessional women,whether they work indeveloping or maturemarkets. I meet, mentorand encourage womenfrom many countries:whether a woman worksin China, Mexico, the USor Europe, she facessimilar – and occasionallyagonising – choices abouthow to prioritise aspects ofher life.

Women’s experiencesmight differ subtlybetween countries, butuniversal problems persist,such as under-representation on boards,failure by companies to

nurture female talent andconflicting culturalexpectations.

Let me illustrate mypoint. In April last year Iwas elected to the PwCglobal board and becamethe first femalerepresentative frommainland China.

Looked at one way, myappointment epitomisedadvances being made bywomen in business inemerging markets: theother female boardmember is fromMexico.

Butlooked atanotherway, thefact that Iam one ofjust twowomenunderlineshow far we

have to go. Two out of 18members is simply notenough. I have been honestenough to point this out toour global leaders and amconfident the proportionwill rise.

Such changes take time,and they are worthpursuing – not only for thegood of the femaleworkforce, but also for thebusiness as a whole. Allbusinesses benefit from agender and cultural mix,because those differenceslead to better businessdecisions.

Diversity is essential tothe long-term success ofany organisation. Thatmessage is getting acrossin all markets, but there ismuch still to do.

Here in China, there is asocial expectation that awoman should put herfamily before her career,and this feeling has beenintensified by the one-childpolicy – a child is veryprecious.

Nevertheless, in someways China is a shiningexample of female

empowerment in business.Some 30 per cent ofentrepreneurs are women –as reflected by the risingnumbers of femaleexecutives we encounterdaily among our clients.

The Forbes 2013 list of24 self-made femalebillionaires worldwidecontains six from China(including Hong Kong),second only to the US.

This progress hascoincided with the growthof private-sectorbusinesses, whichincreasingly appreciate theadvantages of a diverseworkforce.

By contrast, thegovernment has further togo in putting more womenin senior roles.

But even in China’sprivate sector, making it tothe top remains tough. InPwC China, for example, 65per cent of junior staff arewomen but the proportionslumps to 30 per cent atdirector and partner level.

I have heard manyreasons why femaleemployees decide to end

hugely promising careers,including a lack of flexibleprogrammes to helpbalance work and family,few female role models andpersonal mentors, and thechanging values of thedigital generation.

These reasons – and thestatistics that follow intheir wake – resonate withwomen around the world.

The good news is thatcompanies are makinggreat efforts to dismantlethese barriers. I know it ispossible to balance life as aparent and businesswoman,and to achieve success andfulfilment in both.

Building my career hasdemanded some difficulttrade-offs. I freely admit Isometimes consideredgiving up. But I never did.

What matters is thatwomen can overcome thechallenges we all face –wherever we build ourcareers.

Nora Wu is Asia Pacifichuman capital leader andmanaging partner at PwCShanghai

‘I admit I considered giving up – but I never did’OpinionNORA WU

Women hold up half thesky according to MaoZedong. But they are along way from receivingfair rewards for the

work they do.Nearly half the women in the world

do not work in the formal economy,and the global pay gap is estimated bythe International Labour Organisationto be 22.9 per cent – in other words,women earn 77 per cent of what menearn.

Yet governments would have muchto gain if they offered women strongerincentives to work. For example, ifwomen’s rates of participation in thelabour market were raised to thesame levels as those of men, Egypt’seconomy would grow by a third andUnited Arab Emirates’ GDP wouldexpand by 12 per cent, according toresearch by Booz & Co.

Estimates based on ILO data sug-gest that of the 865m women whocould be contributing more to theirnational economies, 812m live inemerging economies and developingnations.

Women in the developing worldare poised to make a significant con-tribution to the economic growth oftheir countries, but that will only hap-pen if they are properly educated andequipped, according to the Women’sEconomic Opportunity Index 2012.

Women in these countries are catch-ing up with men in education onmany measures, and their pay mayoften be equal to that of their malecolleagues when they join the jobmarket after graduation. However,progress tends to stall over time.

Women take the bulk of time offwhen a baby is born, which affectsrelative pay. And women’s domesticduties are also regarded as a priorityover employment in many countries.

This means women are workingwhat Laura Sherbin, director ofresearch at the Center for TalentInnovation, a consultancy, calls a“second shift”.

“There is pressure from family toquit,” says Ms Sherbin. She points tothe example of a senior banker inIndia. “Even though the family couldafford a web of support, she still gotup in the morning and prepared allthe lunches.”

Such demands mean women needflexibility in their working hours. Inmany cases, flexibility means a paycut, especially when countries haveno legislation in place to ensure part-time workers are paid the same asfull-time workers on a pro-rata basis.

In some countries, this is com-pounded by additional taxes imposedon the second earner in a family. Else-where, women may have their time inthe office curtailed by a lack of safety

in their commute. Their ability totake on international assignmentsmay be impeded by curbs on theirfreedom to travel alone. All these fac-tors limit women’s pay and bonuses.

Many impediments are cultural anddifficult to displace, but much couldbe done. Ms Sherbin thinks that hav-ing an adjudicator present in perform-ance reviews could raise awareness ofcultural biases.

In one case, she says, an HR repre-sentative present in meetings in anIndian company realised that womenwere penalised in their performancereviews for sticking to their guns,while men were rewarded for doingthe same thing.

For Penelope Clayton, a consultantat Booz & Co, governments shouldlead by example: “You need to startwith the public sector and have theright practices and procedures there.”

Martin Oelz, one of the authors ofthe International Labour Organisa-tion’s guide to equal pay, points toSwitzerland as an example of goodpractice. The government has linkedpublic procurement contracts withgender equality, so any companywanting a contract with the govern-ment will have to abide by its rules onequal pay. Mr Oelz believes the stateshould shoulder some maternity leavecosts, so companies do not regard it asan inconvenient, extra cost.

Jeni Klugman, director of genderand development at the World Bank,recommends public policies start withchildren. Schools should ensurestereotypes are not reinforced andgirls are not deterred from makingambitious career choices at an earlyage, she says.

Adeola Azeez, Deutsche Bank’s dep-uty country head in Nigeria, is afounding member of a non-profitorganisation Women in Management,Business and Public Service. She men-tors young Nigerian women but sheargues that some responsibility foradvancement must lie with womenthemselves. If they are to negotiatehigher salaries, for example, theymust do their research. “You must beable to say, ‘This is what I can add’,”she explains. “You need to know yourenvironment.”

The OECD says that by discourag-ing women from continuing to workafter they have had children, employ-ers have a diminished talent poolfrom which to recruit – which affectswhole economies. But the gender gapis wasteful in other ways.

In its report Closing the GenderGap, the organisation points out:“Gender inequality means not onlyforgoing the important contributionsthat women make to the economy, butalso wasting years of investment ineducating girls and young women.”

Expectations,pressures andbiases dragdown salaries

Equal pay Flexibility at work is essential, butit often means a wage cut, writes Amie Tsang

‘Domesticduties areregardedas a priorityover workin manycountries’

Waiting for thegreen light:commuters pausein Shanghai traffic

Alamy

‘Change will be driven as much froman economic as from a socialperspective.

An economy cannot reach its fullpotential if it limits the progress of50 per cent of the workforce.’

Chanda KochharChief executive, ICICI Bank

‘Building a careerdemands difficulttrade­offs. But wecan overcome thechallenges’

FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 7 2014 ★ 3

Women in Business Emerging Markets

FT graphic: Kripa PancholiSources: Grant Thornton International Business Report; GMI Ratings

Womenon boards

20092013

20092013

20092013

20092013

20092013

20092013

Companies with atleast 3 female directors

Companies witha female chair

11.8

7.46.9

14.4

7.46.5

2.3 2.53.4

22 2220

14 14 14 1413

109

Russia

Indonesia

Latvia

Philippines

Lithuania

China

Thailand

Estonia

Armenia

Georgia

43

41 4140

3938 38

37

35 35

Bottom 10 countries among 45 countries(%) Industrialised Emerging

Female representationAmong large public companies(%)

Women in senior management, 2014Top 10 countries among 45 countries(%)

Global

Spain

US

UK

Denmark

Germany

India

UAE

Switzerland

Netherlands

Japan

9.78.5

1.819%2004

24%2014

US

Australia

Indonesia

Philippines

Malaysia

Thailand

India(no

change)

Armenia

UAE

Russia

China

Baltics

Taiwan

Hong Kong

Chile

Argentina

Brazil

South Africa

Peru

Botswana(no change)

Poland

EU

Turkey (no change)

Georgia

Mexico

New Zealand

Singapore

Vietnam

Japan

hailand

n

s

M

S

Vi

a

a

Nordic

UAE

n

NH

a

Russia

PPo

UEEU

a

Chile

M

PeP ru

US

Nordic

Below 20%20 to 30%30 to 40%Above 40%

Change from2004 - 2013average

Proportion of womenin senior management(listed and privatelyheld mid-marketcompanies), 2014

g

Women in senior management

‘Chinese women do not feel inferior tomen. You might put this down tocommunism – and that may be rightto an extent – but far more importantis the fact that women have alwaysworked because theyhad to. It wasdifficult for womento stay at home,because it wasimpossible tosupport a familyon a singleincome.’

Changhua WuGreater China director,the Climate Group

‘Technology has great potential as anequaliser. It does dramatic things:removes barriers; makes geographicdistances irrelevant; increasestransparency andreducescorruption. It haspotential, butwe have towatch out for‘digital divide’.There is achancewomen couldbe leftbehind.’

Kumud SrinivasanPresident, Intel India

‘Vietnam remains quite a traditionalcountry with strong family values,so people tend to have differentexpectations anddoubt ourcapabilities. Ifwe do well, weare treatedequally, but ifsomething goeswrong, we receivegreatercriticism.’

Trang Nguyen NgocGeneral director,VietinBank­Aviva

4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 7 2014

Women in Business Emerging Markets

When a prominent Mexicanbusinessman last year criti-cised women for balancingcareers and families, itseemed a step backward forequality in Latin America.

Women “are doing badlybecause they want to doeverything”, Ricardo Sali-nas Pliego, owner of Ele-ktra, the Mexican electron-ics company and TVAzteca, the broadcaster,said at a business summitin October.

Such remarks are lesscommon than in the past ina region where some of theleading countries are gov-erned by women, includingDilma Rousseff, president ofBrazil, Michelle Bachelet,president-elect of Chile, andCristina Fernández deKirchner, president ofArgentina.

But the incident serves asa reminder that machismois not easily eliminated.

A 2013 survey by McKin-sey, the consultancy, foundthat 8 per cent of membersof the executive committeesof 348 listed companies inLatin America were women.More executives recognisegender diversity is a strate-gic priority (at 37 per cent,up from 21 per cent in 2010).But progress can be slow.

An obvious barrier is thecultural perception thatLatin American womenshould look after familieswhile men go to work.

Seventy per cent of execu-tives in Latin America sur-veyed by McKinsey believedthat family pressures pushat least some women toleave jobs. This was muchlower in Asia, at 57 percent, when the survey wasconducted there in 2012.

Claudia Politanski, seniorvice-president for legalaffairs at Itaú-Unibanco, thelargest Brazilian privatebank, recalls the difficultiesof managing work and chil-dren in the early stages ofher career.

“The major responsibility

for my daughters fell onme,” she says. “It was veryexhausting but I did not seespace to discuss it. I had tobe at work [all the time]. Ihad to be available totravel, work weekends andlong hours.”

The lack of women atthe top can perpetuate the

problem, with youngerwomen having few femalerole models or mentors.Women sometimes feel theyhave to work harder thanmen to be promoted or lis-tened to by men.

For example, Itaú’s work-force is 59 per cent femalebut only 9 per cent of thebank’s directors are women.Mrs Politanski is the onlywoman on Itaú’s nine-member executive board.

“If I had more womensitting with me on theexecutive committee, itwould be easier to conveymy vision,” she says.

Ana Gabriela Pessoa ishead of innovation at GrupoMulti, a language schoolchain in Brazil acquiredlast year by Pearson, whichalso owns the FinancialTimes. She says women arestill under-represented intechnology and innovation.

“I always felt like I wasone of the few women in

Brazil doing this,” she says.That led Ms Pessoa torecruit talented women andto offer mentoring towomen in her sector.

Verônica Serra, a Chile-born entrepreneur, hassought to be a role model.Ms Serra, the daughter ofJosé Serra, the former Bra-zilian presidential candi-date, made her fortuneinvesting in two successfulLatin American start-ups:the financial portal Pata-gon.com and MercadoLivre,a Nasdaq listed e-commerceretailer.

In 2001, she launchedPacific Investimentos, aprivate equity fund, whichhas at least one female pro-fessional for every two men.

“The fact that I havegrown and done relativelywell in a male-dominatedenvironment makes memore open to not justaccepting but also attract-ing women into the office,”she says. “They feel this isa place where they canthrive and do better.”

Elsewhere, companies inLatin America are startingto recognise the need toretain female talent. Institu-tional support is increasingthrough flexible hours,remote working arrange-ments and paid maternityleave (three months inLatin America on average,although it is six months insome countries).

Latin American womenare learning to be more out-spoken in the workplace.Andrea Alvares, a generalmanager at PepsiCo in Bra-zil, offers an example. MsAlvares became pregnantduring her second year inArgentina leading PepsiCo’smarketing division in theregion. After two years dur-ing which her husbandcommuted every weekendfrom São Paulo to BuenosAires, she had had enough.

“I did raise my hand tosay that it was a bit toughto be without my husbandin a different country, twokids and having just hadmy third child,” she says. “Iwas very vocal and openwith the company . . . andthat eventually helped meto reach a higher positionin my home country.”

For Mr Salinas and thoselike him who believe onlysuperwomen can succeed,showing human fallibilitymight not be a bad thing.

As Eunice de Carvalho,Chevron’s Brazil managerand a mother of five, notes:“Some days I am a greatmum and not so terrificbusinesswoman and otherdays I am a terrific busi-nesswoman and not a greatmom. But, on balance, mostdays I feel I can do both.”

Machismo persists despite riseof region’s female presidentsLatin America

Speaking out againstcasual sexism can bea fraught business,writes Amy Stillman

Leaders: Dilma Rousseff, left, and Michelle Bachelet Reuters

Cornelia Holtzhausen remem-bers that her first pair ofminer’s overalls were sooutsized they served herthroughout her subsequent

pregnancy. “They were the smallestones in the store,” she recalls.

The anecdote is a small but tellingexample of how little account hasbeen taken of women in the miningsector. In what was considered arough, tough working environment,South Africa – Ms Holtzhausen’shome country – was not the onlynation to have laws that prohibitedwomen from working underground.Legislation in South Africa changedin the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Ms Holtzhausen is nowgeneral manager of Thabazimbi, aniron ore mine in Limpopo province.

In some mining tasks, such as driv-ing trucks, women are lauded as moresafety-conscious and efficient thantheir male colleagues.

Nevertheless, women’s battles formore recognition in the industry –starting with simple changes such ascorrectly fitting, two-piece workwear,appropriate protective equipment andseparate washing facilities – are likelyto be long.

“We still need to put a lot of effortin,” says Ms Holtzhausen.

Anglo American, the multinationalmining group that owns Thabazimbithrough its Kumba Iron Ore subsidi-ary, is one of many companies settingtargets to increase the quantity andquality of female employment in theindustry.

Anglo was led until last year byCynthia Carroll, which made her themost prominent woman in the miningsector.

Women’s under-representation inthe upper echelons of mining is stark.A recent report from Women in Min-ing (UK), an industry group, foundone in 10 board members at theworld’s 100 most valuable minerswere women, a lower proportion thanin every other sector. Following MsCarroll’s departure, just one of those100 – Canada’s Turquoise Hill – has afemale chief executive.

At lower levels, most companies aretrying to get more women into theirtalent pipeline, using tools such astraining bursaries, mentoring strate-gies and student recruitment.

For example, Rio Tinto, another bigglobal miner, says it wants 40 per centof its graduate intake to be female by

next year: in 2012, the most recentyear for which figures were available,the proportion stood at 30 per cent.

And it is in emerging markets thatefforts to redress gender imbalance inthe industry are most strenuous. Withtalent scarce across the industry,many mining companies recognisethat they cannot afford to ignorepotential recruits.

For example Antofagasta, a Chile-focused copper miner, says the coun-try will need about 44,000 extra work-ers by 2020 to meet industry invest-ment plans and says more womenwould help to address the skills short-age. Chile’s government has set up apreferential training programme forwomen to boost employment levels.

At a time when miners must payincreased attention to how they fostergood relations in host countries –securing what the sector knows as a“licence to operate” – Amanda vanDyke, who chairs Women in Mining(UK), says women often have a betterunderstanding of broader kinds ofoperating risks, such as communitymistrust or the prevalence of Aids inthe workforce. “They are preparedto consider them in a different wayfrom men who may have been in the

industry their whole lives,” she says.In South Africa, Anglo, which says

women make up 15 per cent ofemployees in the country, fast-trackswomen into engineering and miningjobs and has some women-specificquotas in place for training and bur-sary places. It supports a governmentand Unicef programme called TechnoGirl, which gives shadowing opportu-nities during school holidays to girlsfrom poor families who are studyingscience and mathematics.

The country’s Equity EmploymentAct requires employers to put diver-sity strategies in place, while the min-ing charter demands that employersmeet targets towards recruiting aworkforce that reflects the country’sdemographic make-up.

“South Africa is in many waysahead of other places in terms of legis-lation and policy – having become ademocracy later we have been able tolearn from others’ mistakes,” saysKhanyisile Kweyama, Anglo Ameri-can’s executive director in SouthAfrica.

Women still face cultural resistancefrom a male-dominated workforce. MsKweyama says the company has hadto pay a lot of attention to education

Mining’s talentshortage bringsfast­trackopportunities

South Africa Companies cannot afford toignore potential recruits, says James Wilson

Qualified: ageologist checksstability devicesat an Anglo minein South Africa

‘SouthAfrica isahead – weare a latedemocracyand learntfrom others’mistakes’

‘I grew up in a typical Brazilianfamily and my mother didn’t work.Very early on, I realised that I hadto have a career – something Iwould be proud of, something thatwould belong to me.

I would tell myself, rememberyour mother. Your children willgrow and be independent, youneed to have your career.’

Claudia PolitanskiVice­president for legalaffairs, Itaú­Unibanco

programmes for miners – manymigrants from rural areas wherewomen have traditionally stayed athome – to get them to be more accept-ing of female colleagues.

Sometimes, says Ms Kweyama,“when you make them think of theirown daughter being discriminatedagainst, then it starts dawning”.

A police investigation is continuingafter a woman miner was assaultedand killed underground at an Angloplatinum mine in 2012, and SusanShabangu, South Africa’s mining min-ister, says she is concerned by reportsof women miners experiencing harass-ment. “No woman should be intimi-dated from becoming the best possibleminer,” she says.

Ms Holtzhausen, who has completedan MBA and mining engineeringdegree with Anglo’s financial support,says a combination of stubbornnessand naivety – not realising the obsta-cles she would face – helped heradvance. “I am not going to be shy.There is still a lot of work to be done.But I can see improvement,” she says.“The mining industry is one of thebest paying in South Africa. We aregrowing the future by allowingwomen to provide for their children.”

‘Women feel theyhave to workharder than mento be promotedor listened to’

FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 7 2014 ★ 5

‘Businessmenthink a woman’splace is on anoligarch’s arm’

AlyonaVladimirskaya

Women in Business Emerging Markets

Marina Kolesnik has beencompared to MarissaMayer, the chief execu-tive of Yahoo. One imag-ines Ms Mayer would not

deem it necessary to take male col-leagues to meetings. But Ms Kolesnikdoes so in order to, as she puts it,“send out the right signals”.

Men occupy most of the senior polit-ical and corporate jobs in Russia. Butthat has not stopped a wave of Rus-sian female professionals, includingNatalya Kaspersky, the co-founder ofKaspersky Lab, the antivirus softwaregroup, and Alisa Chumachenko, chiefexecutive of Game Insight, the videogames publisher, making it big in thecountry’s dynamic information tech-nology sector.

A graduate of Harvard BusinessSchool, Ms Kolesnik gave up a job inthe US at McKinsey, the managementconsultancy, to return to her homecity of St Petersburg in 2011 to launchan online hotel booking agency.Founding Oktogo.ru was a “chance tomake something new and make a dif-ference,” she says.

Alyona Vladimirskaya climbed theIT job ladder at Mail.ru, Russia’s lead-ing internet company by number ofunique users, before striking out onher own in 2011. The company shefounded, Pruffi.ru, is one of Russia’sbiggest online recruitment agencieswith a monthly turnover of $100,000.

“I wanted to make my own story,not play a part in someone else’sstory,” she says.

Most of the men who drove theearly development of the Russian ITindustry were computer enthusiasts,different from typical Russian busi-nessmen, “who think a woman’s placeis on an oligarch’s arm or in thekitchen” says Ms Vladimirskaya. “Noone in IT paid any attention to gen-der. That’s why so many women havesucceeded.”

Also new was the culture of entre-preneurship that had been stifled dur-ing the Soviet era. “There were a lotof empty niches,” she says.

Contacts are extremely important inthe closed world of Russian business.

Ms Vladimirskaya has plenty,describing herself after more than adecade in IT as a “brand” in her ownright.

Alexei Basov, an IT entrepreneurwho now serves as vice-president ofRostelekom, Russia’s state telecom-munications company, providedPruffi.ru with $100,000 of seed capitalin exchange for 25 per cent of thebusiness. Almaz Capital, the Russianventure capital group, invested$500,000 last year.

Ms Vladimirskaya hopes to launchan English language version of thesite during the first quarter of thisyear, and a tie-up with LinkedIn.

Russian e-commerce has benefitedfrom a rise in consumer spending cou-pled with the rapid expansion of theinternet.

With 66m users, Russia is thebiggest internet market in Europe,according to 2013 research by the Rus-sian Association for Electronic Com-munications and the Higher School ofEconomics in Moscow.

Women shoppers outnumber menby 10 to one in Russian online stores.As internet entrepreneurs, they arequick to identify gaps in the retailmarket.

As digital deal-a-day websites tookoff in the US, Elena Masolova, 29, aneconomics graduate from MoscowState University, launched Darberry,a clone of Groupon, the US site, inearly 2009. Within six months, Grou-pon swallowed its Russian rival in adeal reported to be worth $50m.

Known among bloggers as Russia’s“Start-upper Number One,” Ms

Masolova has co-founded 11 onlineventures and is an active angel

investor. Her latest project is Edu-son.tv, a virtual business school

that allows students to per-sonalise MBA courses andattend interactive class-rooms where executivesfrom leading firms such asMerrill Lynch and Mail.rudrop by to give lectures.

The aim, says MsMasolova, is to makebusiness education

“more accessible andless boring” for herown, internet-savvy genera-tion. When hir-ing staff, MsMasolova does

not take gender into account. “I lookat personalities,” she says. “I am verypushy. It’s important for me to havepeople who don’t just listen, but alsofight for their ideas.” Women tend tobe less assertive than men, but “theseskills can be learned,” she adds.

Alyona Popova, the founder ofStartup Women, a project to nurtureonline businesses, says Russianwomen entrepreneurs have the advan-tage of being less risk-averse thantheir male counterparts.

Russia’s paternalistic society some-times puts huge pressure on men tohave successful careers and supporttheir families. Expectations of women,by contrast, are much less demand-ing, says Ms Popova.

“Women worry much less aboutmaking mistakes,” she says.

Digital entrepreneurs find springboard to big timeRussia Technologysector has a high quotaof successful females,writes Isabel Gorst

Upstart: Elena Masolova has co­founded 11 digital ventures including a virtual business school

Incredible journeyOktogo.ru

The Sochi Olympic Games are over,next comes the 2018 Fifa World Cup.Russia continues to boost its travelinfrastructure to serve internationalevents, creating opportunities forniche tourist services companies.

Among these is Oktogo.ru, whichsince launching in 2011 has grown tobe Russia’s biggest online hotelreservations agency, with some 3munique monthly users. MarinaKolesnik, founder and chief executive,says the company serves 6,000hotels in almost “all Russia’s large,medium and small towns, as well assome places I had never heard of”.

The company has raised $26m infunding from Mangrove CapitalPartners, Ventech Capital and VTB,Russia’s second­biggest bank. MsKolesnik declines to comment on thesize of the company’s revenues, butclaims they are increasing by fourtimes a year.

Russia’s online travel market isworth about $10bn a year and isexpanding rapidly, according toPhoCusWright, a global travel industryconsultancy. According to MsKolesnik, the Sochi games are likely tohave flagged Russia as a destinationfor curious, independent travellers.

Hoping to stay ahead of the trend,Oktogo.ru bought travel.ru, the localequivalent of Roughguides.com, lastyear for about $2m.

6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY MARCH 7 2014

Women in Business Emerging Markets

Armed with a PhD in chem-istry, Beena Rai, 49, hasbeen working for the past18 years as a research scien-tist at Tata ConsultancyServices, one of India’s larg-est companies. She is usingcomputers to simulate mol-ecules for industries suchas pharmaceuticals, per-sonal care products, paintsand coatings.

Her work is highly techni-cal, and when she was hiredshe found her colleagueswere all men. “I was theonly woman. I found it veryisolating,” Ms Rai recalls.“In these domains, menreally didn’t take womenseriously. I really had toprove myself.”

Proving her technicalskills has not been her onlychallenge. The softly spo-ken scientist struggled toassert herself becausespeaking up went againstthe grain of her conserva-tive upbringing in theHindu pilgrimage town ofVaranasi. Instead, she sim-ply worked hard and hopedfor recognition.

Yet Ms Rai’s attitude haschanged since last year,when she attended a five-day mentoring programme,with 49 women from vari-ous companies in India andrun by the New Delhi-basedWill Forum.

The Will Forum – itsname comes from Womenin Leadership – is a socialenterprise dedicated tohelping international anddomestic companies retainwomen employees and helpwomen better navigatemale-dominated work envi-ronments. It is led byPoonam Barua, a fast talk-ing, high-energy economist.

“We are not threateninganybody,” Ms Barua says.“I am talking balanced lead-ership. Let the best talentshine.”

Retaining women in theworkplace is a challenge inIndia, where companiesroutinely complain of diffi-culties in finding qualifiedor experienced workers tokeep pace with thedemands of rapid economicgrowth.

While women account for40 per cent of India’s gradu-ates and make up a largepercentage of most compa-nies’ entry-level employees,their presence in the work-place drops among mid-career professionals.

Many abandon jobsbecause they cannot man-age both work and homeresponsibilities, but others

leave because they feel theyare not being taken seri-ously and given opportuni-ties to advance.

Ms Barua says: “Manywomen ‘off-ramp’ becausethey don’t see a place forthemselves at the top. It’snot a maternity thing.”

The Will Forum founder,who began her project in2008, regards her mission astwofold. She advises mem-ber companies – who payRs100,000 ($1,600) a year tojoin – on how to create sys-tems that allow women toprogress or return to workafter a few years away car-ing for children.

“The balance for womenwill be partly resolved ifthey don’t have so muchpressure at work, if theworkplace gives them sup-

port, has a diversity policyand is safe,” Ms Barua says.“If you give women betterpolicies, they will stay.”

Ms Barua also organisesprogrammes to help mid-career and senior womenprofessionals overcomeproblems such as reluc-tance to speak up and pro-mote themselves.

“Women think it’senough if they work hard,”she says. “We teach themhow to be visible, how tobuild executive presence,learn to navigate the corpo-rate dynamics.”

Over the past five years,about 250 women from arange of industries haveparticipated in the forum’sannual five-day residentialmentorship programme.This is the pivot of perhapsIndia’s only cross-sector,cross-company network forwomen professionals.

Michelle Vedamuthu-John, a Bangalore-basedglobal manager of servicecommunications for Thom-son Reuters, says: “Thegreatest part was the factthat I could share, andlearn from the experiencesof 50 other women. I nowhave a talented pool ofwomen I can tap into if Iam faced with any work-place challenges that I don’thave answers to.”

Shravani Dang, vice-presi-dent and head of corporatecommunications for theNew Delhi-based AvanthaGroup and a past mentor atWill Forum, says Indianwomen professionals bene-fit from talking to counter-parts and peers.

“We have certain sharedissues, whether it’s notbeing able to tell our storyinternally, or how to get thenext jump,” Ms Dang says.

“It’s difficult to talk inter-nally with anybody in thecompany about those kindsof things, but you can bareyour soul to somebody whois external to the company.You know you are not fight-ing a lone battle.”

Isolated employees findstrength in numbersIndia

Mentoring fosterssuccess at work,writes Amy Kazmin

Umit Boyner’s career mightseem exceptional in a pre-dominantly Muslim countryoften associated with patri-archal values.

In 2002 she joined the executiveboard of her husband’s family busi-ness group, Boyner Holding, Turkey’slargest non-food retailer, and in 2010she was elected chairwoman ofTusiad, Turkey’s leading businessassociation. Her term ended last year.

Yet Ms Boyner’s rise to the top ishardly unusual. Women are a regularpresence in Turkish boardrooms.According to the World Bank, 12 percent of chief executives in Turkey arewomen. The 2014 Grant ThorntonInternational Business Report found25 per cent of senior managers atTurkish companies are women.

Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag runsDogan Media Group, the country’sbiggest media empire. Guler Sabanci,recently named the world’s secondmost powerful woman by FortuneMagazine, chairs Sabanci Holding, anindustrial and financial conglomeratewith revenues of nearly $15bn in 2012.

But the success of these women –all members of prominent businessfamilies – as well as thousands ofother businesswomen, remains hardto square with the fate of millionswho are shut out of the job market.

At 29 per cent, Turkey’s femalelabour participation rate is about halfthe OECD average. In the World Eco-nomic Forum’s most recent gendergap index, the country was placed120th out of 136, earning an evenlower grade (127th) for women’s eco-nomic participation and opportunity.

One reason is the lack of opportuni-ties for women without a degree.Turkish men, regardless of whetherthey finish primary, secondary schoolor university, find it easier to enterthe job market. But for women, the

level of schooling makes a difference.A woman with only a primary schooleducation will have a relatively lowchance of finding and keeping a jobover a sustained period of time. Auniversity graduate will fare better.

Education is only part of the pic-ture. Arguably, the biggest factor,says Ipek Ilkkaracan, an economicsprofessor at Istanbul Technical Uni-versity, is marriage.

Among single urban women ofprime working age with eight years ofschooling the labour participationrate is 48 per cent, she says. For simi-larly educated married women, thecorresponding rate drops to 18-19 percent. “Women drop out of the labourmarket as soon as they get married orhave children.”

To a large extent, says Ms Ilkkara-can, it is material conditions that areto blame. Many Turkish women, par-ticularly those without a degree, areemployed in the shadow economywith no access to maternity leave, sal-aries too low to afford private child-care and no legal entitlement toreturn to work after childbirth.

Mr Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Jus-tice and Development Party (AKP)insists it is committed to putting morewomen into work, says Ms Ilkkara-can, but its policies, combined withthe prime minister’s own exhortationsfor women to have at least three chil-dren, leave much to be desired.

“The perspective the governmenttakes is women can participate in thelabour market as long as they con-tinue to take care of the children and[other] dependants.”

Zeynep Hasoglu, founder and editorof Hayyat, one of a growing numberof Islamic lifestyle and fashion maga-zines, takes a more sympathetic viewof Mr Erdogan’s decade in power.

“For veiled women, includingmyself, life wasn’t easy 10 or 15 years

ago,” she says. The Muslim headscarf,worn by at least half of Turkishwomen, was banned from public uni-versities and state institutions.

“We couldn’t find jobs as teachersor doctors or nurses,” she says, “andeven in the private sector we werediscriminated against.”

Today, with the government havingchipped away at the ban before dis-mantling it almost entirely in 2013,and with a so-called “Islamic bour-geoisie” on the rise, covered womenare much more visible in the work-place.

“At public hospitals, they used to bethe ones bringing tea, the ones doingthe cleaning,” says Ms Hasoglu. “Nowthey’re the doctors.”

Whatever its eventual impact, thelaw lifting the headscarf ban is nopanacea. It may increase the numberof working women, says Ms Ilkkara-can, but only slightly. What needs tochange, says Ms Hasoglu, is howwomen are taught to perceive theirrole: “Girls are told from early on,‘Don’t worry, you’ll grow up, you’llbecome beautiful, you’ll find a richhusband, and he’ll look after you,’ asif they’re princesses.”

This, she says, “is true of conserva-tive families, secular families, poorfamilies, and of rich families”.

“Mine, fortunately, didn’t raise melike this,” she adds. “They raised meto improve myself, to try to succeed.”

Opportunitieshinge on schooland marriageTurkey Stellar careers are possible, but manyare excluded from the outset. By Piotr Zalewski

Starting out: primary schoolgirls play in the southernvillage of Gombe Alamy

‘Working hardis not enough –we teach womenhow to be visible’

Poonam Barua

‘Girls are told not toworry, that they willfind a rich husband– as if they areprincesses’