Five Ways Companies Can Reach Women in Emerging Markets
By Melissa J. Anderson
“It’s very easy to be patronizing about emerging market women because we tend to see them as victims. It’s shifting one’s view,” said Sylvia Ann Hewlett, professor at Columbia University and founding President of the Center for Work-Life Policy, on Forbes Women.
CWLP has recently published its report on professional women in emerging markets – entitled The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets – exploring how multinational companies can better cater to “highly ambitious women” in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
Presenting the data at a recent event at the Asia Society in New York City, Hewlett explained, first of all, that we shouldn’t consider “women in emerging markets” as a homogeneous social group. The women in each of the countries studied were part of distinct cultures, and as a result, had different pulls and pushes, different desires, and lived in different contexts.
Even still, the study revealed some constants – and provides some good advice for how global companies can attract and retain professional women in emerging markets.
1. Recruit at Top Universities
According to the study, the number of women in emerging markets enrolled and graduating college is often equal to, and sometimes outpacing, the number of men. As Hewlett and Ripa Rashid, Senior Vice President at the Center for Work-Life Policy and co-author of the study, write in the Harvard Business Review:
[Women] represent 65% of college graduates in the UAE, 60% in Brazil, and 47% in China. In Russia, where communism promoted universal access to education, 86% of women aged 18 to 23 are enrolled in tertiary education. More than a third in that age group are enrolled in tertiary education in Brazil and the UAE, and 50% of the Indian women (versus 40% of the Indian men) in our sample hold graduate degrees.
Companies should train recruiters to seek out women as well as men when looking for top job candidates at universities.
2. Make Sure They are Receiving Challenging and Engaging Assignments
According to the study, women in emerging markets are full of ambition. The percentage of women surveyed who said they would describe themselves as “very ambitious” topped the US percentage (36%) in every country:
- Brazil: 59%
- Russia: 63%
- India: 85%
- China: 65%
- UAE: 92%
As more multinational companies move into emerging markets, they should be aware that the women in these areas want to achieve. They’ll be looking for interesting assignments with the ability to take them to the next level. And as more companies move into the space and the labor market becomes more competitive, these companies would be wise to retain their top talent by offering challenging roles with the potential to advance.
3. Understand Family Pulls and Pushes
In most Western markets, more women drop off the career track because they have children to take care of. But in emerging markets, the study revealed, child-care wasn’t as significant a pull as it is in the West.
As Hewlett and Rashid write in the HBR:
“Professional women in BRIC and the UAE are less encumbered than women elsewhere by childcare issues, because many grandparents are active caregivers (cultural visions of age-old pursuits center more on family than on individual leisure), and working mothers have access to affordable domestic help and a growing infrastructure of day-care and early-childhood centers.”
On the other hand, eldercare is a significant concern for professional women in these areas. By being flexible and understanding of the need to take care of parents and in-laws, companies can help women stay on the career track.
4. Provide Safe and Interesting Travel Opportunities
Hewlett and Rashid recommend providing international assignments to women in emerging markets – to keep them engaged and “provide development opportunities.” At the same time, many of the women surveyed said that safety is a big concern for them during travel – whether abroad or in their home country.
Kidnapping, rape, assault, or harassment is a major concern of women traveling in emerging markets, and by providing escorts, companies can help assuage these fears – and protect their workforce. On top of these concerns, in many of the countries studied, women traveling alone, without family members, is socially discouraged. By making arrangements for family members to travel with female workers, companies can provide an attractive and sometimes necessary perk for these women.
5. Help Women Network
Hewlett and Rashid recommend helping female employees build networks – both internally in the company, and outside the company, within their communities. Because women business leaders are not the norm in most of the countries studied, these women can feel isolated – cut off from company headquarters overseas, or cut off from their home communities. By helping female employees reach out to other women, companies can help women work through feelings of isolation or confusion, share tips and stories, and strengthen workplace connections.
By showing their interest in attracting and retaining women in emerging markets, companies can build employee engagement – and stay competitive – as more multinational companies compete for this important workforce segment.