A study suggests more and more women are being sent abroad, writes Gabrielle Monaghan

Companies are sending more women on international assignments than ever before, with European organisations relocating twice as many females as they did five years ago, a new global survey of more than 100 multinationals has shown.

"Going on expatriate placements can be an important step on the career ladder, and women are increasingly interested in taking these assignments," said Yvonne Sonsino, principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the largest consulting firm of its kind in Ireland and the UK.

The organisations polled by Mercer employ a total of 17,000 male and female international assignees.

Fifty-five per cent of the companies surveyed expect the number of female assignees to continue to increase steadily over the next five years, while 35 per cent say the number will remain the same. Just 4 per cent believe the number of women they send on foreign assignments will decline.

Despite the surge in the number of women being sent abroad by their employers, many of the companies surveyed by Mercer have outdated policies that do not reflect the changing profile of their expatriates, Ms Sonsino said.

The survey found that while the organisations generally do not have separate policies for female expatriates, male and female assignees were treated somewhat differently. For instance, some 15 per cent of the companies polled said they would not send women to locations where they could face hardship, such as the Middle East.

Women are more likely than men to leave their partner at home when they are on an international assignment, the study also found.

While 57 per cent of companies said the majority of their male assignees are accompanied by a partner, just 16 per cent said most of their female expatriates are accompanied.

Female expatriates are less likely than their male counterparts to have a partner before moving abroad. Some 74 per cent of organisations said most of their male assignees had partners prior to going on assignment, while only a quarter of companies said this was the case among women.

"Studies suggest that partners of successful women also tend to have high-powered careers. When a woman is offered an international assignment, their partner may be less willing to make career concessions to accompany them," Ms Sonsino said. "This may strengthen the need for companies to have well-defined spouse support policies which include assistance for the partner in finding work."

The Mercer survey found that two-thirds of companies don't provide incentives or support to help partners settle in their new location. Where support is available it is usually given only when specifically requested.

For example, just 7 per cent of the organisations polled offer information on the local job market to assignees' partners, though 37 per cent said they would provide it if they were asked.

"An unhappy spouse can often cause an assignment to fail, so not spending money on support services can be a false economy for companies," Ms Sonsino said. "While integrating partners into the local community may take time and money, it ultimately pays off."

The majority of multinationals also do not support children of female expatriates, the study showed.

In the survey, 12 per cent of companies said their female employees on assignment overseas are single parents, yet only 4 per cent provide additional support to this group.

"Expatriate programmes are simply not designed to cope with providing support for single parents," Ms Sonsino said. "There is an increasing need for companies to update their policies in this area."

Support for female expatriates is particularly relevant in the Asia-Pacific region, where organisations have 16 times as many women working abroad than they did in 2001. Companies in North America, by contrast, have nearly four times as many women on foreign assignment for the same period.

"The huge growth in the number of females sent on assignment by Asia-Pacific companies reflects the fact that businesses in this region, particularly in China, are becoming increasingly global," Ms Sonsino said.

Advice for prospective expatriates is available at: www.imercer.com/mercerpassport