The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) recently participated in the global “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” initiative in celebration of the International Women’s Day. Over 40 stock exchanges worldwide took part in this event, which is now on its third year.
The 2017 event series has the theme “Women at Work” to highlight the role of and opportunity for business of women.
“At the PSE, we are fortunate to deal with many women leaders across our wide stakeholder base, including listed companies and trading participants. We have witnessed in many ways how we have progressed within this constituency in promoting gender equality in the corporate world,” PSE Chairman Jose Pardo said.
“We realize, however, that more work needs to be done in this respect. A recent PSE study shows that women only make up 15 percent of the total number of Board of Directors of listed companies,” Pardo added in his remarks during the bell ringing event.
“On the part of the PSE, one of the things we are considering is to require all IPO-applicants to have at least one female member of the Board. We hope that this initiative can help further the advocacy for gender equality,” he said.
Aside from PSE directors and management, in attendance during the special bell ringing ceremony were officers and members of International Finance Corp (IFC), United Nations (UN), Filipina CEO Circle, and Zonta International.
“Research shows that many companies are struggling to ensure women are represented fairly in top management. So, IFC and its partners, particularly PSE, are working to build capacity, raise awareness, and expand the conversations about gender equality in corporate boards in emerging markets including the Philippines,” said IFC Philippines Country Manager Jane Yuan Xu.
The “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” event series is a partnership of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative together with the UN Global Compact, UN Women, IFC, Women in ETFs and the World Federation of Exchanges to raise awareness about the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.