Data from the “Gender Representation in Nutraceutical Industry Leadership” survey from the nonprofit group Women In Nutraceuticals (WIN) confirmed that women are underrepresented within senior leadership positions. Women hold 37% of these roles in the nutraceutical industry, according to findings, which were first presented at Vitafoods Europe in Geneva.

Established in 2022, WIN’s vision is to “achieve economic and societal equity to change the global nutraceutical industry”; and its mission is to “empower women in nutraceuticals to unlock their personal and professional potential.”

According to WIN President Heather Granato, the idea of the survey was “to get a global benchmark of where the industry is now that would then allow us to track over time.”

“You can’t really make change unless you know where you’re starting from,” she added. “So having this baseline data was really important for us. It was one of the first big projects that we knew we wanted to accomplish with WIN.”

Study Details

WIN contracted NEXT Data & Insights to conduct the survey, which was fielded from Dec. 1, 2022 to Jan. 23, 2023, gathering insight from 355 global respondents. A majority were located in North America (63%), followed by Europe (22%), and Rest of the World (15%).

Company size (based on annual sales) appeared to reflect the broader nutraceutical industry: 47% of respondents worked with companies making less than $10 million in annual revenue; 31% $10M to $99M; and 21% more than $100M.

Business types included ingredient suppliers/producers (40%); finished goods manufacturers (33%); service providers (8%); retailers/wholesalers (7%); third-party distributors, importers, or exporters (4%); nonprofits/NGOs (1%); and other (7%).

Results

Smaller companies (those with less than $10 million in annual revenue) appeared to have greater representation of women in senior leadership positions (48%) and more female CEOs (46%).

Medium-sized companies with revenue of $10M to $99M reported 34% of senior leadership positions are held by women, and 20% CEOs. Meanwhile, larger companies with revenue greater than $100M reported that women hold 36% of senior leadership positions, with 13% as CEOs.

In North America, according to survey results, women hold about 36% of senior leadership positions and make up 27% of CEOs. In Europe, women hold 33% of senior leadership positions and make up 28% of CEOs. For the Rest of the World, companies reported that women hold 46% of senior leadership roles and 34% of CEO positions.

In terms of board representation, there was less variation related to company revenue; about 25% of board members are female at companies with less than $10M in annual sales, compared to 22% at companies with more than $100M.

There wasn’t much regional difference either. Globally about 23% of board members are female (21% in North America, 23% in Europe, and 29% for the Rest of the World).

There’s a lack of ethnic diversity in the C-suite as well, with 71% White, 16% Asian/Pacific Islander, 5% Black, and 4% Latin.

Granato said the results were in line with WIN’s expectations. “I was hopeful—since we are a pretty innovative industry and we’re constantly looking for the cutting edge—that we might see there was more representation across senior leadership teams and that there was more interest at the board level. Instead, really, it confirmed a lot of what we had thought.”

“It was interesting that smaller companies had greater representation and diversity,” she noted, perhaps because founders often come from diverse backgrounds, and/or younger people are bringing more diverse thinking into business.

Hear more about this survey by watching this video interview with Heather Granato.

Industry Comparisons

Looking at U.S. companies overall, according to the latest “Women in the Workplace” report from McKinsey & Co (October 2022), which is one of the largest studies of women in corporate America, one in three C-suite leaders are women (36%) and less than one-third of senior leadership are women (32% for VPs and 28% for SVPs).

In the pharmaceuticals and medical products industry, women make up 39% of VP roles, 34% of SVPs, and 28% of the C-suite, according to McKinsey. For the food and beverage manufacturing industry, women make up 34% of VP roles, 31% of SVPs, and 21% of the C-suite.

“If you think of us as the intersection of food and pharma, that’s pretty much where we’re playing,” said Granato. “Our numbers are very similar to what we see in those industries.”

“Depending on where you were, the board representation was a little bit different. You had higher representation in Europe than you did in North America. Some of that could be due to variation in the number of people who were responding to the survey. But overall, what we saw was pretty similar to what we expected.”

What It Means and Why It Matters

Several studies and reports have identified significant benefits for businesses with greater gender parity. For example, research from McKinsey found a 48% performance differential between the most- and least gender-diverse companies in executive leadership.

According to Entrepreneur Media, there’s a 21% increased likelihood that companies with gender-diverse executive teams will report above-average profitability.

Why is diversity good for business? “It’s this idea of bringing people with different skills, ideas, perspectives, and experiences together at the table,” said Granato. “With people who think like me, who have my same background, I’m not really going to be challenged. But if you have people who are willing to question me, who are coming at it with a different perspective, then everyone thinks differently, and you’re getting out of the box.”

This diversity of thought can empower leaders to take bolder decisions, she added. “You’re willing to take more chances, perhaps, because you have people who are challenging your past.”

Teams with greater gender and ethnic diversity tend to be more collaborative and engaging work environments as well. “What that means is you’re not having the same level of turnover,” Granato said. “You’re bringing in people who are young and enthusiastic. They’re growing with your organization, they’re asking questions, and you’re ultimately getting better business results.”

Setting a Path for Improvement

WIN is currently setting goals and KPIs for improvement across the industry, Granato said. “How do we engage our sponsor companies? How do we engage the broader industry? How do we ask companies and people to be accountable? We did have companies that weren’t interested in completing a survey, because they’re not where they want to be. And that’s unfortunate. None of us are where we want to be yet, but together we can get there.”

How does the industry get from here to there? There are many paths forward of course. To bring more women into leadership positions, companies must address what’s been described as the “broken rung,” Granato said.

“For every 100 men who are promoted from entry level to the first level of management, only 87 women are promoted into that first management step. If we don’t address that first step of management, we’re never going to have as many people as we need when we get to the senior management level.”

That’s the first step, she said: helping to promote more women into that first level of management. “How can we help provide the skills, the development, the competence-building, the willingness to put yourself forward? Men are often seen as putting themselves forward for management or new positions even if they may not have all the things you’re looking for on a checklist. Women are more reluctant to do that.”

Another way to improve gender equity in hiring is to factor for unconscious bias. Blinding the hiring process by removing names or gender identities when possible has been shown to increase the number of women who are hired for roles, Granato noted.

These issues were prevalent before the pandemic. Yet, in the U.S., more than 2 million women left the workforce when Covid hit. That number appears to be back up to pre-pandemic levels, but the ripple effects on women and business, have left significant gaps across many industries.

“Understanding that when women stepped away—and most of it was women stepping away for childcare responsibilities or caring for family—work was still happening. Management was still promoting people. So you may have a missed opportunity there. That will be a gap.”

Granato cited Julia Wiebe, PhD, WIN director at large and managing director of red otc, a Finzelberg company, who noted that for women in science in particular, missing a year of academic research and publishing opportunities is almost impossible to make up.

“So what can we do that will help the people who missed that year, particularly early in their careers, to close the gap so they will be able to have the same opportunity?”

Growth Potential

Granato underlined that while WIN’s mission is to empower women to be personally and professionally successful, “the intent is equity within the nutraceutical industry that helps us all achieve more. So I’d like to think it’s not an either/or; it’s more for everyone. We’re growing the size of the industry and our companies by making more opportunities.”

Women make up the majority of the consumer base in the natural health products market. So gender parity in business may even help to better-serve customers, according to Granato. “As we have greater representation within our teams, we’re actually representing our consumer base.”

The same holds true for improving ethnic diversity. “This is a growth opportunity across the nutraceutical industry,” said Granato. “By 2045, White people will be non-majority in the United States. This speaks to the need to think about how we represent people throughout our industry.”

Companies should also look within the entirety of their own organizations for fresh ideas. “You never know where good ideas come from,” she offered. “What I’ve found about the nutraceutical industry that I really love is that it attracts people who are very passionate about the cause. They’re passionate about health and nutrition. Let’s bring in more people. Let’s grow the pie so that we have men and women who are representative shoppers, who can bring different thinking to what we do for the industry.”