I know that I rule the roost at my home, so I wasn’t surprised to find that women make up more than 70% of all consumer purchasing decisions worldwide. But even I found this statistic shocking: The global female consumer market is worth about 12.45 trillion pounds ($20 trillion) — bigger than the consumer markets of China and India combined. Yet here in the United Kingdom, women only make up 20.7% of Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 boards members, and only five FTSE 100 companies are led by female CEOs.
This seems like a monumental mistake. When you’re playing to a 12.45 trillion-pound market, employing women in leadership roles who understand female consumers’ needs is no longer just a nice thing to do to — it’s essential.