Women have crossed the 50 per cent threshold in four major industries, yet their presence in the most powerful corporate roles remains far below that milestone, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2026.
Women made up 59.9 per cent of the workforce in Healthcare and Care Services, 54.2 per cent in Education, 51.7 per cent in Consumer Services, and 50.6 per cent in Government and Public Sector. The gains are striking on paper, but they have not translated upward.
At the senior leadership level, women's representation across vice president, C-suite, and board positions rose from 26.7 per cent in 2015 to 29.4 per cent by 2023, where it remained through subsequent years.
Within the C-suite across a sample of 39 economies, women held 19.1 per cent of chief executive officer posts, alongside roughly a quarter of chief financial officer and chief operating officer roles. Women held roughly two-thirds of chief human resources officer and chief people officer positions, and slightly less than half of chief marketing officer roles , a pattern that shows female leadership concentrated in functional rather than operational power.
Technical leadership remained especially low, with women representing less than one in five chief information officers and just 8.6 per cent of chief technology officers.
Between 2014 and 2024, the proportion of board seats held by women rose from 15.2 per cent to 29.3 per cent, but their representation in board leadership positions moved only from 3.2 per cent to 5.2 per cent over the same period.
In the Fortune Global 500, the count of female chief executives increased from 14 in 2015 to 32 in 2025, elevating their share from 2.8 per cent to 6.4 per cent. Within specific sectors in 2025, Utilities recorded the highest share of female CEOs at 17 per cent, followed by telecommunications and media at 11 per cent, while retail, energy, and construction each stood at around 9 per cent.
The report identified selection processes as a key structural barrier. It noted that even among executives with comparable CEO-feeder experience, women are currently less likely than men to become CEOs, suggesting that barriers persist beyond entry into the leadership pipeline, including in the processes and selection decisions that determine who ultimately reaches the top.
At the other end of the workforce spectrum, women made up around one-quarter of workers in Oil, Gas and Mining at 25.2 per cent, and Infrastructure at 23.6 per cent.
