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Article: Missing Global Opportunities: The Woman Expatriate

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Missing Global Opportunities: The Woman Expatriate

How is your company doing with regard to assigning women to positions in overseas locations?  A survey that was conducted last year by Catalyst, a not-for-profit women's business organization, involved over 700 individuals from Fortune 500 companies and showed that most companies are not sufficiently tapping into this valuable pool of talent for global assignment opportunities.

According to the study, "Passport to Opportunity: U.S. Women in Global Business", although women represent 49% of all managers and professionals in the U.S., they represent only 13% of those sent abroad.  Additionally, almost half of the human resources executives polled said that developing global talent is now a high priority at their organizations.  The majority said there is a shortage of global managers.

Given these statistics, one might wonder why executives are not assigning women to global posts in larger numbers. Some persistent stereotypes about the type of work women might prefer or be best suited to, or about the preferences of their spouses or partners, may be getting in the way.  Data from the survey strongly suggests that such stereotypes lack any basis in reality. 

Consider the following:

• 80 percent of women working abroad have never turned down an international assignment, compared to 71 percent of men.

• 76 percent of women said their gender has had no negative effects on their work with international clients.

• 90 percent of women living abroad or those with international responsibility said they would accept their assignment again.

• Women in global assignments report similar (not higher) levels of work/life challenges and stress to those reported by men.

• 91 percent of married female expatriates are in dual-career couples, compared to only 50 percent of married male expatriates being in dual-career couples.

• Over 90 percent of male "trailing spouses/partners" of female expatriates indicate that they would make the same decision if they had a chance to do it again. 

Clearly, there is reason to rethink some of the stereotypes impacting decisions regarding global assignments.  How many companies can afford to continue to ignore valuable talent?