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International Women’s Day 2022

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Today, we celebrate women across the world and those who are charting the course for others to follow within our own industry!
 

Welcome to International Women’s Day 2022, a day to celebrate women's achievements and increase visibility of women’s issues! This year, Nimdzi wants to celebrate the women-owned companies in our industry, with the help of some data from the recently published Nimdzi 100.

This year, 17% of companies in the Nimdzi 100 ranking are women-owned or women-run.

RankCompanyCountry2021 Revenue (USD million)Note
18Translation BureauCanada153.3v
40Certified Languages InternationalUnited States55.1v
44AkorbiUnited States47.5v
46Global TalkNetherlands45.4v
47Argos MultilingualUnited States43.5v
51CQ fluencyUnited States38.4v
52CSOFT InternationalUnited States + China38.0v
55Alpha CRCUnited Kingdom37.0v
60Valbin CorporationUnited States32.6e
61Traductions Serge Bélair (TRSB)Canada32.1v
64MasterWord ServicesUnited States30.4v
80Transline GruppeGermany23.5v
82SupertextSwitzerland21.5v
86DA LanguagesUnited Kingdom18.7v
89mt-gGermany16.5v
98Hansem GlobalSouth Korea13.5v
99itl Institut für technische LiteraturGermany13.0v

First, the bad news. This number has actually fallen slightly from 20% in 2021, and only a few women-run companies made it to the top 50 in our ranking this year, with just one top-20 ranked company being led by a female. Furthermore, women-led companies represent just 6.1% of the total revenue generated by Nimdzi’s top 100 LSPs.

It’s not all bad though! Based on these figures, our industry still outperforms many others — just 8.2% of all Fortune 500 companies were women-owned in 2021. There are also several exciting announcements coming soon, which will see more women take on leadership positions in a number of companies, even if not directly in the CEO seat. 

Did you know?

North American LSPs outperform their global competitors when it comes to females in leadership positions: more than 50% of all women-run companies in the Nimdzi 100 are headquartered in the United States or Canada, despite the region only accounting for 36% of all companies in the ranking. Europe also hosts its fair share of powerful women, and a couple of large women-led LSPs are based in Asia.
 

There is still progress to be made, but it’s important to congratulate our female CEOs on their achievements and recognize those in the industry who are already pushing forward, paving the way for others.  As Supertext’s CEO, Kristy Sakai, says: “Highlighting women in leadership is important for visibility and encouragement. We need to shape company culture and structure to inspire all women with ideas and skills to come forward and take on leadership roles.”

Nimdzi would like to especially mention the achievements of Translation Bureau’s Lucie Séguin. For the second year running, Lucie is the only female CEO of a Nimdzi top 20-ranked company, and the only woman to lead an LSP with revenues above USD 150 million. Here is what Lucie shared with us, "There is something that is both challenging and exciting about being part of the language sector in this day and age. With a worldwide audience a mere click away, it has never been easier to communicate… yet being heard has never been more difficult! It is an endeavour that requires skill and thoughtfulness, and I believe that women have had and will continue to have a very special impact in showing the way forward as leaders for continued awareness of—and respect for—the diversity of our audience and the need for tailored messaging.

Of course, representation in leadership roles is just one way of measuring the success of women in business. There are other valuable measures such as wage equality or gender stereotypes that unfortunately fall outside the limits of our research this year. We hope to be able to offer an even more holistic picture of the industry next year. With any luck, we will also be reporting on even more female-led companies in 2023! Only time will tell.

8 March 2022

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