Female managers outnumber male in Chinese mainland firms

An independent accounting agency's new survey has indicated that women now take up 51 percent of top management positions in Chinese mainland companies, the highest such ratio worldwide.

The global average is 24 percent, according to results released on Thursday by the Beijing-based Grant Thornton, after its research was conducted earlier in 2013.

In the same period last year, women filled just 25 percent of senior management jobs in the mainland, the results showed.

Of the over 200 mainland companies surveyed, 94 percent of them have female management. Women continue to dominate roles like HR director and chief financial officer, holding respectively 81 percent and 61 percent of the two positions.

However, more females are occupying traditionally male-leaning positions, according to Grant Thornton. For instance, a quarter of the chief operating officer positions are taken by women this year, compared with the 9 percent in 2012.

The survey also indicated that women account for 21 percent of the board members of mainland public companies, higher than the 19 percent globally.

Politically, more Chinese women are also participating in state affairs management. At the ongoing annual legislative session, 23.4 percent of deputies to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, are women, rising 2.07 percentage points year on year.