Each year, ALB recognises leading women lawyers in Asia, who continually deliver impressive results in their respective practice areas and jurisdictions, earning accolades from colleagues and breaking ground in the process. This year, submissions from around the region illustrated the impact of female leaders from Vietnam to Hong Kong.

It’s no secret that diversity in the workplace is important for business success. Not only does this foster dynamic workplaces that represent the real world and encourage innovation and creativity, but more diverse working environments are also more productive. U.S. public companies with diverse executive boards were found to have a 95 percent higher return on equity compared to those with homogeneous boards, according to McKinsey research.

For many businesses, gender representation has long been a work in progress. Despite the topic being firmly on the table, in many countries in Asia, and globally, women still take a backseat at the decision-making level.

In 2022, the World Bank released its Women, Business and the Law Report, which examines a series of indicators that play a role in career progression and overall stability. The report found women were at a disadvantage in many areas of economic participation, while also struggling with outsized expectations around things such as childcare duties. According to World Bank estimates, global differences between men’s and women’s total expected lifetime earnings is $172.3 trillion.

But there is good news — increasingly female leaders, along with governments and boards, are changing the rules, bringing in legislative and internal culture changes, and giving women opportunities to grow in their careers.

In Japan, where women are poorly represented in business leadership roles, the country’s financial services watchdog announced requirements on companies to disclose average pay by gender, while also providing the ratio of male employees who take childcare leave in order to more clearly show investors the picture of internal gender equality metrics.

In India, only 14 percent of businesses are run by women entrepreneurs according to the sixth Economic Census carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), although this is changing, as women enter the growing start-up sector. India’s government has also rolled out programmes such as the Mudra Yojana Scheme, which provides business loans to stimulate business and innovation. According to the government, 68 percent of beneficiaries under this scheme are women. Another programme, the Stand-Up India scheme, facilitates bank loans to those from enterprises where women and individuals from scheduled castes or scheduled tribes are majority shareholders.

Meanwhile, over in Singapore, women hold 13.1 percent of CEO positions, the highest in the world according to Nikkei Asia, yet officials want to raise this number even higher and use it as a selling point to attract overseas talent.

As companies and governments grow increasingly aware of the compel-ling benefits of diversity and inclusion programmes, and more women step into high-profile positions, female legal leaders are important role models and change makers, and proof that progress is possible.

THE LIST