Why women still far from achieving parity in C-suite offices

Mary Wamae, the Group Executive Director at Equity Group Holdings PLC during an Interview with Standard group reporter at her office in Nairobi on September 21, 2023. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

When she joined Equity Building Society in September 2004, some of Mary Wamae’s friends thought she was out of her mind.

Wamae was running her own law firm, handling litigation, conveyance and contract law. She also took on pro bono cases to build her profile. As she grew professionally, so did her practice, moving office from a crammed Luthuli Avenue in downtown Nairobi to the Old Mutual building on Kimathi Street.

But a visit to her office by Mr James Mwangi, the then finance director of Equity Building Society, would forever change her life.

“James explained that Equity Building Society had attracted a strategic investor, Africap Microfinance Fund, to support the company’s growth strategy,” she details in her autobiography, The Village Girl; My dream, Life and Legacy.  

The investor was willing to pump in $1.6 million (Sh120 million at the time) into the venture, and was looking for a lawyer to draw up the contract.

Commercial bank

Wamae, whose firm was on the panel of lawyers for Equity, successfully closed the deal, marking a significant milestone in her career and the beginning of Equity’s transition to a full-fledged commercial bank. For the next two decades, her life would be intertwined with that of the bank as it grew its presence in seven countries.

The apprehension of those who doubted Wamae’s move was perhaps driven by her leaving a law firm, painstakingly built over 10 years, for a virtually unknown institution which wasn’t even a ‘’bank” at the time.

But the move paid off. Wamae rose to the position of Group Executive Director at Equity Group Holdings. She held the position from 2017 until her retirement in 2024, representing a handful of women who rise to such positions, according to a new report by the global consultancy firm McKinsey.

The firm analysed data from 324 organisations employing 1.4 million people in Kenya, Nigeria and India. It found that “women are still far from achieving parity in representation and face systemic challenges that prevent them from reaching leadership positions”.

The study, Women in the Workplace 2025, shows women’s representation at the workplace in Kenya starts strong in both public and private sectors but drops significantly as they climb the ladder; earlier in the private than in the public sector.

Men account for 59 per cent of those getting into the workforce at entry level, while women are at 41 per cent. The number of women declines to 27 per cent at the C-Suite level.

In the public sector, women’s representation at the entry level is at 46 per cent compared to 41 per cent in the private sector.  “In the private sector, women encounter a ‘double-dip’ challenge: first a broken rung hindering their progression into management, and then a second barrier to advancement into senior leadership roles,” says the report.

These dips, according to the study, “diminish women’s representation in the talent pipeline, leaving the proportion of those reaching C-suite positions at only 28 per cent.”

In the public sector, women’s representation is stable at the entry and managerial levels but drops as they rise. In the private sector, for example, the number of women from entry to managerial level drops from 40 per cent to 34 per cent. It rises slightly to 38 per cent at the senior manager or director level but then dips to 28 per cent and 20 per cent at the C-Suite and Board levels, respectively.

In the public sector, women’s representation remains stable at 46 per cent, both at entry and managerial level, but drops to 27 per cent as they move to the C-suite. Men’s representation rises to 76 per cent at the board level, while that of women shrinks to 24 per cent.

Gender diversity

The report also notes that organisations are not prioritising gender equity as claimed.

“While 77 per cent of companies say their CEOs prioritise gender diversity, one third do not track metrics such as hiring or promotion rates by gender. Moreover, 85 per cent of boards and 39 per cent of senior leadership lack designated stall responsibility for driving gender diversity.”

Wamae acknowledges the challenges women in the workplace face as they climb the ladder, juggling careers and family, amid societal pressures and prejudices. “When I joined Equity Building Society in 2004, the board membership was male-dominated,“ she says in her book. It was later reconstituted, and for the first time two women were appointed to it.

“Gaining and taking up a seat on the board as a woman was challenging but insightful. I took in as much knowledge as possible on the Group’s strategy and risk management approaches during board meetings,” says Wamae.

She says women’s rise through the corporate ladder and occupation of the C-suite of any organisation in a male-dominated sphere requires both deliberate short-term and long-term planning.

“In the boardroom, I learnt the basic principles of communication: always being diplomatic even if I disagreed with someone’s position, and backing my argument with necessary facts,” she says. Nominated MP Sabina Chege says women often have to work twice as hard compared to their male colleagues to scale up the ladder. They also have to juggle roles within the family, as primary caregivers, which would make them consider the implications of a career move.

“Many women give up along the way because they are inclined to think first as mothers and how such decisions will affect the family,” Chege, who sponsored the Breastfeeding Mothers Bill 2024, says.

The Bill, among other provisions, seeks to have more flexible work plans for breastfeeding mothers and compels employers to provide lactation rooms.

Chege is hopeful that the Bill, whose provisions offer a conducive environment for maternal care and professional growth, will become law in the next couple of months.

Some organisations are being intentional in setting specific goals to ensure more women rise to top-tier positions.

Senior management

Safaricom, for instance, in its 2024 Sustainable Business Report, sought to achieve 50:50 gender parity at the senior management or leadership level.

According to the report, women in senior management last year were at 42.4 per cent, an increase from 40.1 per cent in 2023. On board diversity, the composition of male and female members was at 50:50 by 2024, an improvement from 45 per cent (female) against 55 per cent (male) in 2023.

The McKinsey report proposes steps employers can take to accelerate their progress on gender diversity.

These include identifying gender diversity gaps in the talent pipeline to develop targeted strategies for improvement. It also recommends an audit of utilisation and implementation of policies, as well as tracking accountability structures on the same.

The study’s findings align with those of an April 2024 report published by the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC), which assessed firms listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) for compliance with the “not more than two-thirds gender principle in leadership”.

Out of 55 companies assessed, only seven had female CEOs (12.7 per cent), a drop from eight female CEOs in 2022. Of 517 board members in publicly listed companies, 143 were female compared to 374 male.

NGEC recommends the formulation of measures to ensure listed companies comply with the gender principle, as well as introduce minimum quotas on representation of other Special Interest Groups in boards of directors and senior management levels. It also calls for ensuring listed companies provide sex, age, disability, and marginalised versus majority disaggregated data on their websites and to the NSE. 

Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux is an independent journalist and media consultant