Bangkok – As one of four presidents at Thailand’s biggest
lender, Kasikornbank, Kattiya Indaravijaya often conducts interviews for senior
positions. The job candidates are impressive. And almost always, they’re women.
"I’m wondering, there’s no guy?" Kattiya, 51,
said in an interview in her office along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok.
"It’s not that they didn’t pass the screening process, they didn’t apply.
Perhaps women’s interest is in banking and finance. Perhaps guys have a
different passion."
In Thailand, where years of educational equality have combined with a
profession that rewards math skills and merit, women comprise 31 percent of
board and executive committee members in financial services -- some way short
of parity but the highest proportion in the world after Norway and Sweden, according
to a study last year by consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
In the US, the representation of women in similar positions is 20 percent.
Japan is at the bottom of the list, with 2 percent.
"Men probably look for more exciting and challenging jobs than the financial
industry, where work requires more patience, detail, caution and rule
compliance," said Voravan Tarapoom, president of the Association of
Investment Management Companies, a mutual funds trade group, and also chairman
of BBL Asset Management Company. "They may feel financial industry work is
so boring."BBL has to pay special attention to the number of males hired, or else women
will dominate the firm, Voravan said.
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"Financial jobs require very detailed and cautious persons," she
said. "This may fit the female character more."
Women account for 57 percent of Thailand’s finance and insurance workforce,
according to government statistics. Yet the fact that two-thirds of senior
management and executive roles
are filled by men indicates Thai women still face challenges in achieving
equality, said Joni Simpson, a specialist on gender, equality and
non-discrimination at the International Labour Organisation in Bangkok.
"Accounting is a field that is accessible to women in Thailand, and
therefore they have been able to advance in this sector and are highly visible
across several levels of jobs," she said, citing cultural norms and
attitudes in Thailand. "The chances are better for women to advance to the
highest levels."
Yet across all industries, Thai women account for less than 10 percent of
executive and management roles on average, she said. More work needs to be done
in all sectors including finance to encourage mentoring, access to childcare
and eldercare, and chances for advancement, she said.
Without legislation
Still, Thailand’s high proportion of women in senior financial roles
happened without government legislation, said Bandid Nijathaworn, chief
executive officer at the Thai Institute of Directors and a former deputy
governor of the Bank of Thailand. Norway and Sweden, like other countries
in Europe
and elsewhere, have enacted laws requiring companies to have 30 percent of
their boards comprised of women.
The Thai central bank has had a female governor, from 2006 to 2010, and at
least half of its managerial staff is female. At the Stock Exchange of
Thailand, the president is female, as are almost 70 percent of workers. Thailand has also had a female prime minister,
Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of the ruler deposed in a 2006 coup.
"Female executives must show much more superior or outstanding managerial
skills and competency over male colleagues to receive promotions," said
Kesara Manchusree, the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand. "It’s
a very tough job to balance business and family roles."
Male-dominated
Across the Asia-Pacific region, the proportion of women in senior business
roles has climbed to 25 percent this year from 23 percent in early 2016,
according to a global survey released Wednesday by consultancy Grant Thornton.
At the same time, the percentage of Asian companies with no female
representation in senior management surged to 36 percent from 25 percent in the
same period last year.
At Kasikornbank, Kattiya remembers a male-dominated organisation when she
joined about three decades ago, after her father suggested banking as a career
rather than her initial choice of advertising.
Kasikornbank had almost no female employees until around 1984, according to
Chatchai Payuhanaveechai, who worked there for about three decades, including
as a senior executive vice president. He’s now president of the state-owned
Government Savings Bank.
"Even at my bank, when we open up new positions, about 80 percent of
applications have been from female candidates – this is the trend in Thai
banking," he said. "I think the new male generation wants to be
entrepreneurial. We’re now in a reversal where we’ve been promoting the hiring
of male employees.”
Female employees in finance and insurance numbered 314 300 in the third
quarter of 2016, according to the latest government data. For men, the number
is 244 400.
Today at Kasikornbank, the 14 000 female employees outnumber men 2-to-1. The bank outperforms its peers: 2016 return on equity was 13
percent compared with the 11 percent average of Thai lenders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
As its first female president, Kattiya focuses on finance, human resources and
integration across departments. With an MBA from the University of Texas
at Austin, she’s one of two women on the bank’s 26-strong management team,
according to the bank’s website -- and was an unusual presence at a large
dinner with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the World
Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos in January.
"I was the only woman," she said, showing a picture on her mobile
phone. "There must have been at least 30 people -- business people from
Russia, Japan and Thailand. So it’s still a male dominated world. Women are
playing major roles in the business world, but there is still more to
come."
-With assistance from Chanyaporn
Chanjaroen and Lee J Miller.