This report from a major professional services firm makes the case for gender diversity in terms of a "Gender Dividend" companies will reap from moving women into senior management. It makes this case at a government and business level, and describes the advantages of gender diversity (and risks associated with its absence) in terms of talent recruitment and retention, customer engagement, decision making and earnings.To implement effective change companies must ask and answer questions about the expected impact of increased diversity in their workforce. Examples of such self-assessment questions are provided for development of a company's own business case. It is argued that promoting women into leadership needs to be analysed and weighted as any other significant business project would be. Subsequent programmes and initiatives are then required at every level of the organisation, and gender diversity needs to be embedded into the core of decision-making process. Profiles are presented of the recently-appointed US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, of Deloitte's own internal initiative for women leadership, and of a key male leader within this initiative.

This paper re-states the business case for diversity in terms of a re-definition of diversity which moves beyond visible differences and discrimination, instead framing the issue in terms of diversity of thought within the workplace. It advances the argument that women's inclusion in the workforce yields business results not because of special attributes the women themselves possess, but because diversity is an indicator of an organisation's willingness to access their entire talent pool and manifest a culture of openness and merit.The paper argues that workplace flexibility has been found to yield higher productivity for both men and women, regardless of country or culture, and as such it should be re-framed from a women's issue to a universal and genuine offer made to all employees. For diverse teams to work, organisations must have supportive cultures and inclusive leadership with specialised skills. Action points are provided at the paper's conclusion for organisations wishing to enhance diversity and inclusion in their workforce.

This academic paper presents a review of the literature on the business case for gender balance. The review covers expected workforce shortages following recovery from the current recession, the demonstrated benefits of women's participation in the workforce and of female leadership, and rising female control over consumer expenditure.The paper also presents original research data on female representation in the senior management of 956 American companies. It finds that women occupy only 9.94 percent of the top five executive roles in the companies studied, varying from 2.62 percent representation in the top executive (Chief Executive equivalent) role to 19.34 percent in the fifth-ranked role. Results are further tabulated by industry sector.

This report, produced by the research division of a major investment bank, examines the effect that gender diversity in corporate governance has on corporate performance. Data was collected on over 2,300 companies from around the world, and analysis found that over the six year period from 2005-2011 companies with at least one woman on their board outperformed, on average, those with no women. Statistics are presented for average market cap in a variety of sectors, showing a linear increase trend by number of women on companies' boards in most sectors.The authors hypothesise that companies with higher numbers of female directors are relatively defensive in nature, which matches the challenges of the current economic climate. Seven key reasons are provided why gender diversity may correlate with performance, from a better mix of leadership skills, increased effort being put into governance, improved standards of governance and increased risk aversion. A feature interview is provided with Professor Katherine Phillips of Columbia Business School, that offers insights on the benefits of diverse teams and the challenges they face.The paper concludes with a discussion of gender diversity policies which have been set in place in various nations, and of the barriers to change which have been identified to date.