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Higher Proportion of Australian Women to Men Consider Themselves in Managerial Positions and Earning above Median Income

Sydney, 18 March 2009 − MasterCard Worldwide today released the findings of its annual MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement. Australia saw its Index score rise to 96.1 from 79.1 in 2008, ranking first in the Asia/Pacific. This is the fifth year that MasterCard has released this Index.

The rise in Index score for Australia was a result of increases across all four indicators from 2008. While there were modest increases in Australian women's labour force participation rate (86 women per 100 men to 87) and tertiary education enrollment rate (131women per 100 men to 132), Australia experienced significant increases in the proportion of women to men considering themselves to be in managerial positions (41 women per 100 men to 74) and earning above median income (59 women per 100 men to 92).

"The 2009 Index reveals that the gap between perceptions of men and women when it comes to holding management positions and earning above median incomes is closing. It is encouraging to see that Australia ranks among the top four markets in Asia/Pacific in all the four indicators," says Michelle Pilot, vice president, Marketing, MasterCard Worldwide.

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement measures the socioeconomic level of women in relation to men using four key indicators:

• Two of the indicators are based on source data from national statistics bureaus and show the ratio of female to male participation in the labor force and tertiary education.
• Two of the indicators are based on survey data, measure the ratio of female to male respondent perceptions of whether they hold managerial positions at work and earn above median income. These subjective factors are a gauge of how empowered and valuable respondents feel at work.

The resulting Index figure calculated from these indicators shows how close or how far women in each market are achieving socioeconomic parity with men. A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favor of males while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favor of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes. The Index and its accompanying reports do not represent MasterCard financial performance.
The pan-regional Index score across 14 Asia/Pacific markets¹ edged up slightly from 71.6 in 2008 to 72.4 in 2009.

While Australia had the highest Index score (96.1) in the Asia/Pacific, we were followed closely by Thailand (91.5) and New Zealand (90.5).

Singapore had the highest ratio of women to men who saw themselves in a managerial role at work (86 women per 100 men), followed by China (75) and Australia (74). In terms of women who felt they earned above the median income, Singapore again ranked the highest, with 98 women per 100 men indicating that they earn above the median income, followed by Australia (92) and Thailand (83).

More than 50% of the women surveyed in nine of the 14 Asia/Pacific markets saw themselves as the one who makes most of the major financial decisions for the household. Topping the list was Thailand (77.8% of the women surveyed), followed by Korea (74.4%), China (73.2%), Vietnam (68.8%), Indonesia (59.6%), the Philippines (57.6%), Japan (54.4%), Taiwan (54.2) and New Zealand (50.5%). In Australia, 40% of the women surveyed said they saw themselves as the major financial decision makers in their household. "It is interesting to note that while a higher proportion of women to men are seeing themselves as being in a managerial position and earning above median income, only 40% of females in Australia consider themselves to be making the major financial decisions for their households. This percentage is surprisingly lower than markets like China and Japan," says Pilot.

Additional highlights include:

• Australia saw the greatest increase in its Index score, followed by Thailand, New Zealand, Singapore and China. The rest of the markets showed decreases in their scores.
• The Index score for the Philippines saw the biggest drop, followed by Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
• Terms of tertiary education enrollment rates, markets recording the highest scores were New Zealand (154 women per 100 men), Australia (132) and Malaysia (131).
• Terms of labor force participation, the proportion of women to men was the highest in Vietnam (94 women per 100 men), New Zealand (89) and Thailand (88).
• Terms of consumer confidence across Asia/Pacific, women in seven of the 14 markets surveyed were more positive than men in terms of their overall outlook for the next six months: Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

"This is the fifth year of the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement and it has been interesting to see the movements in scores across the Asia/Pacific markets in terms of labor force participation, tertiary education enrollment rates as well as perceptions towards managerial positions and earning above median income. The women's segment is of importance to many businesses and we are glad to be providing these insights to help companies better understand and reach out to this important target group," said Georgette Tan, vice president, Communications, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide.

MasterCard is committed to empowering women through initiatives such as its U21 Global Scholarship for Women in Travel and Tourism, which was launched in 2006 to provide working women professionals a program to develop their leadership skills and realize their full potential in the area of travel and tourism. The program comprises scholarships given out for the U21Global Executive Diploma of Business Administration that can articulate into The University of Nottingham MSc in Tourism and Travel Management.

MasterCard has devoted extensive resources to developing a deeper understanding of the women's segment in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. It regularly releases consumer insights and trend research on women. These can be accessed at its online repository of proprietary research www.masterintelligence.com

This news release is distributed with the table below that shows the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement by market. The full report can be found at the website www.masterintelligence.com

	MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement
Market	2006	2007	2008	2009
Australia	96.1	83.9	79.1	96.1
China	88.3	81.5	73.3	82.3
Hong Kong	77.4	80.8	81.7	76.5
India	N/A	39.1	39.4	37.8
Indonesia	69.2	61.0	66.4	62.7
Japan	59.8	60.7	63.4	54.5
South Korea	61.4	61.6	57.7	45.2
Malaysia	92.9	71.3	76.0	69.9
New Zealand	90.1	96.5	80.0	90.5
Philippines	92.8	89.2	88.0	70.4
Singapore	86.6	78.7	78.1	88.3
Taiwan	77.2	86.8	76.0	60.3
Thailand	79.6	77.2	78.4	91.5
Vietnam	67.4	68.6	69.2	65.9
Asia/Pacific	79.0	73.8	71.6	72.4

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement is part of the MasterCard Worldwide Index suite of research products in Asia/Pacific. The other key MasterCard Worldwide Index research products include the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence, the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Purchasing Priorities, the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Purchasing Resilience, the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce and the MasterCard Worldwide Emerging Markets Index. Besides the suite of Indexes put forth by MasterCard, MasterCard also develops Insights reports as part of its series of ongoing research and analysis of business dynamics, financial policies and regulatory activities in the Asia/Pacific region. Over 60 reports have been produced since 2004.

The suite of Indexes and reports do not represent MasterCard financial performance.

MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide. As a franchisor, processor and advisor, MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes approximately 21 billion transactions each year, and provides industry-leading analysis and consulting services to financial-institution customers and merchants. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network and through its family of brands, including MasterCard^®, Maestro^® and Cirrus^®, MasterCard serves consumers and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information go to www.mastercard.com.