Geneva, Switzerland–Women In Nutraceuticals (WIN) has released an overview of benchmark data from its Gender Representation in Nutraceutical Industry Leadership Survey. WIN reported that the study confirmed the perception of inequality that was the impetus for developing the data, and comparable to corporate leadership in general and in similar industries.
Key findings, as outlined by WIN:
- Smaller organizations had greater female representation in senior leadership, with 48% of companies
- Medium-size companies have 36% female representation in senior leadership
- Companies in the >US100M group have 34% female representation in senior leadership
- Board representation showed less variation based upon size. Companies under $10M reported 25% female board members, while those over $100M reported 22%.
- Regarding ethnic diversity, WIN's findings revealed 71% White, 16% Asian/Pacific Islander, 5% Black, and 4% Latin.
For comparison: According to WIN, the closest industry for comparison is the pharmaceutical & medical products space. In that industry, according to McKinsey & Company’s Women in the Workplace 2022 report, women make up 39% of VP roles, 34% of SVPs and 28% of C-suite. For corporate figures overall, McKinsey reported representation of women at the VP level at 32%, SVP at 28%, and C-suite at 26%.
There is a significant business benefit to increasing women in leadership, WIN said, pointing to business reports showing that gender-diverse companies are significantly more successful. WIN shared: "McKinsey & Co found a 48% performance differential between most and least gender diverse companies in executive leadership. Harvard Business Review found 21% increased likelihood that gender-diverse executive teams report above-average profitability. And Entrepreneur reported that diverse companies are better positioned to capture new markets, increasing both performance and profits."
Working toward gender parity
WIN said this information, along with interviews with its members and sponsors, will be used to set goals on numbers of women in senior leadership and the C-suite, as well as programming and tools to help them get there. Further information about the survey result, as well as opportunities ahead, are available in a new whitepaper, which is free to WIN members.
This research, conducted by NEXT with financial support from Informa, included the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Outreach was conducted in December 2022 and January 2023. “Having the benchmark study data will not only serve as an important foundation for focused work, it will also allow future measures of improvement," said Danica Cullins, SVP of Informa's SupplySide, when the study was announced. "We look forward to collaborating with WIN along each step of this journey to better serve the nutraceuticals community and its stakeholders.”
