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A study of 353 fortune 500 companies connects corporate performance and gender diversity.

A news release in new york by catalyst demonstrates that companies with a higher representation of women in senior management positions financially outperform companies with proportionally fewer women at the top. These findings support the business case for diversity, which asserts companies that recruit, retain, and advance women will have a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

In the study The bottom line: Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity, sponsored by BMO Financial Group, Catalyst used two measures to examine financial performance: Return on Equity (ROE) and Total Return to Shareholders (TRS).

After examining the 353 companies that remained on the F500 list for four out of five years between 1996 and 2000, Catalyst found:

The group of companies with the highest representation of women on their senior management teams had a 35-percent higher ROE and a 34-percent higher TRS than companies with the lowest women`s representation.

Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, and Financial Services companies with the highest representation of women in senior management experienced a considerably higher ROE and TRS than companies with the lowest representation of women.

"Business leaders increasingly request hard data to support the link between gender diversity and corporate performance. This study gives business leaders unquestionable evidence that a link does exist," said Catalyst President Ilene H. Lang. "We controlled for industry and company differences and the conclusion was still the same. Top-performing companies have a higher representation of women on their leadership teams."

"The Catalyst study confirms my own long-held conviction that it makes the best of business sense to have a diverse workforce and an equitable, supportive workplace," said Tony Comper, Chairman and CEO of BMO Financial Group, sole sponsor of the research.

How relevant is this to the Indian Scenario? What is the percentage of women in the workforce today? How many are middle-level managers? How many have reached the top? Which of our Corporate giants are `women friendly`? Can a woman make her career her first priority and forge ahead to crack the glass ceiling? Or is she limited by her gender? If she can boost the bottomline, what can the establishment do to make her life a little easier? Can she achieve a work - life balance? Write in and tell us what you think.