In a survey covering 744 firms of 10 major Asia-Pacific stock markets, only 6 percent of board seats account for women, compared with 15 percent in the U.S. and 17 percent in Europe. It shows that Asia’s leading companies have only very few women in senior jobs. This could mean that vital pool of talent can be missed out that can fuel the growth of the region, with Japan ranking second from the bottom.

In the Asian firms, 8 percent of the executive seats are held by women, which is lower than the average of 14 percent in the U.S. and 10 percent in Europe. According to a report titled “Women Matter”, since half of Asian graduates are female, not considering many women for senior positions results in a huge waste of talent. And given the uncompromising shortage of senior managers in the region, it is a waste that Asian companies can ill afford it.

With having female presence in boardrooms, countries that are on top of the list are Australia having 13 percent, Hong Kong with 9 percent, and China having 8 percent in these top jobs, while South Korea, Japan, and India were at the bottom of the list.

In South Korea only 1 percent of women are on the boardroom seats, due to their conservative culture. While Japan, which came next from the bottom, only 2 percent of women hold such jobs due to similar reason where women are the sole caregiver in the family. About 60 percent of Japanese women have quit or change jobs after marriage. In India, the number is slightly higher at 5 percent. Even in recent news… Japanese women flew coach to the Olympics while the men flew business class. (Another article in the Wall Street Journal).

In the three-bottom ranked nations, the dominant reason for women to leave their jobs is double-burden pressure, while in a place like China and Singapore those reasons had far less influence.