OREANDA-NEWS. March 11, 2009. The percentage of women taking up management positions rose this year from 30 to 40%, reported the press-centre of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

However, there has been no change in the fact that women are more likely to hold management positions that carry a lower level of responsibility than positions held by men. The most common positions occupied by women remain chief accountant (76%), HR director (62%), and marketing director (48%).

The number of women working as financial directors has increased, from 28% in 2008 to 39% in 2009. Senior management is still dominated by men: among the companies surveyed, none indicated that they had a woman in the position of president, while only one company stated that it had a woman holding the post of general director. The majority of respondents (95%) stated that no significant difference had been observed in salary levels.

The 2009 survey for the first time featured questions related to maternity benefits for women: 18% of companies surveyed do not have any specific type of maternity benefits. In 58% of companies women are able to work according to a flexible timetable, in 50% they can work part-time or a shorter working week, while in 40% of companies they can work a flexible working week.

Only 23% of companies allowed women to work from home. 20% of those surveyed received child insurance benefits. It is interesting to note that, despite the economic crisis, 83% of respondents do not plan to make any changes in this area, while 8% of companies intend to introduce only minor changes.

85% of companies surveyed said that maternity leave does not affect a woman’s career, while the percentage of companies acknowledging that having a child does have some effect on a woman’s career was 13%.

Women took maternity leave for a period of between one and two years in 57% of companies, two to three years in 20% of companies, while only 13% of women took maternity leave lasting less than one year.

The average length of maternity leave was eighteen months. 56% of companies made a one-off lump sum maternity leave payment, 44% said that they made monthly payments, while 38% of companies indicated that they paid nothing above the norms prescribed by the Russian Labour Code.