Women Hold Less Than a Third of Managerial Positions Globally, ILO Report Finds

Author: Pragya Verma

November 6, 2026

HRRC supports equal employment opportunities regardless of gender. We encourage governments and employers to take meaningful action to promote inclusive workplaces where women can advance into leadership positions and progress professionally.

[Image Credit: International Hydropower Association/Flickr]

The International Labour Organization released its Women in Business and Management: Scaling Success report on 3 November 2026. The report draws on three enterprise surveys conducted in 2013, 2018 and 2025. The latest survey covered nearly 12,000 enterprises across 99 countries.

The report finds that women’s representation in enterprises has improved over the past decade, with the proportion of enterprises with a woman board chair rising from 13.1% in 2013 to 30.9% in 2025. Over the same period, the proportion of enterprises with a woman CEO increased from 23.4% to 28.2%. 

Despite the progress, women remain underrepresented in management, holding less than a third (30.5%) of managerial positions globally. The report found that gender balance deteriorated at junior and middle-management levels. The proportion of enterprises with gender-balanced junior and middle management declined by 1.4 and 6.4 percentage points, respectively, between 2013 and 2025. 

Even though gender balance has improved in top leadership positions, women remain concentrated in specific managerial functions, especially human resources, finance and administration. The report further says that women remain underrepresented in functions associated with progression to executive leadership, such as profit and loss management, research and development.

Women’s global representation in managerial positions show an increase from 27.8% in 2020 to 30.5% in 2025. Despite the improvement, men still occupy the substantial majority of managerial positions globally. In 2025, women held 40.5% of managerial positions in the Americas compared with just 20% in Asia and the Pacific and 17.9% in the Arab States. ThePrint reported that in India, women accounted for only 12 percent of managerial positions in 2024, citing the ILO report. 

According to the report, even though women have made significant gains in education and skills acquisition, even outpacing men in higher education globally, this progress is not matched by labour market outcomes. This points to structural constraints, including occupational segregation, unequal caregiving responsibilities and social norms that shapes women’s labour market participation and career progression. 

The report highlights practical measures that can help enterprises turn commitments into results, which include strengthening women’s leadership pipelines, improving access to roles and sectors where women remain underrepresented, and embedding gender equality into business strategies and accountability frameworks.

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Glossary

Concentrated - to bring or come together in a large number or amount in one particular area.

Constraints - something that limits or controls what you can do.

Deteriorated - to make worse or lower in quality or value.

Embedding - to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic.

Enterprise - an organization, especially a business, or a difficult and important plan, especially one that will earn money.

Managerial - relating to the work of a manager.

Occupational Segregation - the fact that some jobs are more typically done by men or women, by people of particular races, religions, etc.

Substantial - large in size, value, or importance.