The number of senior leadership roles held by women in Armenia made 32%, moving from 31% recorded in 2017.

This index is indicated in the Grand Thornton report “Women in Business 2018: beyond policy to progress”.

However, the surveyed Armenian businesses haven’t ` improvement in diversity in management positions: 17% having no women in senior roles (as compared to 10% in 2017).

“It’s clear that simply introducing policies is not enough to drive real progress on gender diversity. Businesses which succeed are those whose policies and practices are rooted in a genuine conviction of the benefit of diversity. Leaders must champion the cause and create inclusive cultures, in which a wide range of voices are listened to and where every individual can flourish if we are ever to see real change. Leaders are the only ones who can really press for progress,” said Gagik Gyulbudaghyan, Managing Partner of Grant Thornton Armenia.

Grand Thorton has released the report along with starting the Press for Progress campaign, which was launched on the International Women’s Day. The research reveals that introducing policies alone is not enough to drive real progress and a wider culture of inclusion championed from the top is needed to create change.

According to the research, the progress on the number of businesses with women in senior management has primarily been driven by emerging economies such as Africa (where 89% of businesses have at least one woman in senior management) and Eastern Europe (87%), while Latin America has seen the biggest increase (from 52% to 65%). There has also been a significant increase in developed regions such as North America (from 69% to 81%) and the European Union (from 64% to 73%).

Emerging economies also continue to see the highest proportion of women in top positions, including Eastern Europe (36%), Latin America (30%) and Africa (30%).

The Grand Thornton research reveals that significantly more businesses globally (75% in 2018 v 66% in 2017) now have at least one woman on the senior management team, but the gender gap remains obvious worldwide (the proportion of the team that is female has slipped from 25% to 24%).