Pursuits
Demand Isn't Factor Holding Women Back From Joining Boards
- Women represent just 2.7% of directors of public companies
- Some worry about 'overboarding' by same handful of women
Sakie Tachibana Fukushima.
Photographer: Akio Kon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Sakie Fukushima remembers the novelty of being the only woman on Korn/Ferry International’s board of directors, which she joined in 1995. Ditto when she joined the Sony Corp., Kao Corp. and Benesse Corp. boards years later.
Even now, three years after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made increasing women’s participation in the workplace a tenet of his prescription for reviving Japan’s fortunes, the proportion of females on Japanese boards has hardly budged -- at around the lowest in the developed world. While companies strive to follow Abe’s lead and narrow the gender gap, there’s a confluence of obstacles so deeply rooted in Japan that overcoming them may take another generation.