Only ten percent of supply chain leadership roles are occupied by women

January 9, 2014

According to research carried out by SCM World, they found that only 10 percent of senior leadership roles are held by women in supply chain operations.

They carried out a review of all Fortune Global 500 companies who have a physical supply chain to collect the figures. It’s of stark contrast to general research that found only 24 percent of leadership roles across all industries were occupied by women.

However, by contrast, only 37 percent of students on courses in supply chain management at university are women.

In a poll of 150 global supply chain companies conducted by SCM World, they found that just 74 percent of men felt that the natural skills of women which included emotional intelligence, empathy and self-awareness, were beneficial for supply chain management.

This is in contrast to women surveyed, 96 percent of whom believed their natural skills were advantageous. Three quarters also felt that the natural skills of women differed from those of men.

There was also a clear divide in the survey, with half of men feeling that women suffered from a disadvantage, while the other half thought that they suffered from no disadvantage in the industry.

Chief Content Officer at SCM World commented on the findings: “Women in supply chain are too few, and their path to the top is at least partially blocked. Yet it seems we all believe they bring something to the party that will make it better. The time to break this problem down is now.”