I have been an active member of Women in Finance Asia (WiFA) since 2020, first as their Executive Director and now as a Board Member. WiFA, a non-profit organization with over 6,000 global members, is committed to empowering women to achieve their full professional potential by providing a forum for members to connect, foster mutual support and growth, develop personal and professional skills, and contribute to the wider community. International Women's Day celebrates women’s social, economic, and political achievements; raises awareness about equality; and is a call to action on promoting gender parity, not only in finance but in all industries.

More women are needed in Finance as gender parity in the corporate decision-making process, especially at the C-suite level, increases creativity and innovation, provides diversified talent to make balanced decisions, and improves benefits for shareholders and stakeholders. Attracting the best mix of women (and men) will create positive shareholder returns and is good corporate social responsibility. A diversified leadership team is a high performing team!

Whether conscious or unconscious, bias hinders the progress of advancing gender/ethnic diversity and inclusion. Until markets are committed to #BreakTheBias at work, especially at the C-suite level, and in our communities, we will not be able to move forward on the diversity agenda. Unconscious bias training must begin from the top down as well as throughout an organization and within the community at large.

Removing obstacles by encouraging companies to change codes of corporate governance by requiring organizations to make gender equality disclosures; making public commitments to work flexibility so that women do not need to choose between work and home; developing women networking opportunities in order to create a pipeline of diverse talent for leadership roles; and developing female leaders and male allies to become mentors to young female professionals.

There is growing awareness in Hong Kong on the benefits of diversity in the work place, however, men still dominate the C-Suite and Boards in Hong Kong. In spite of having access to good help at home, many women still choose to prioritize family over career. In part it may be a lack of confidence and role models. HKEX’s plan to put an end to single gender boards is hugely positive and a signal to women that it is possible to balance family and career and still progress to the top of any organisation.

As an international capital market, Hong Kong has to embrace diversity, not just in terms of gender but in race, religion, sexual orientation etc. There is empirical evidence that companies with diversity in leadership make better decisions and perform better. As a community we need to encourage and reward the right behaviour and culture in organisations.

With the current low participation of women on boards, there is a small talent pool of board ready women. There is no short cut and the pipeline needs to be built starting at the executive level. Women on boards should NOT be viewed as tokenism but building a pipeline of impactful female future leaders.

Personally everyone has to do their part. Current C-suites have to include gender equality in their corporate score cards. Together with two co-founders, I started ACcelerate, a not for profit program last year. ACcelerate is a programme designed to enhance female leadership and communication skills giving women the tools to better navigate the C-Suite and Board room. The feedback has been amazing and we are continuing the programme this year.