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Female Representation in Senior Leadership Is Stagnating. Here’s What HR Can Do About It

Published on July 24, 2024

The global gender gap, a measure of gender inequality published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF), narrowed slightly in 2024 to 68.5%, just 0.1 percentage-point higher than the previous year.

The score is an aggregate measure of how opportunities for women fare against those afforded to men in four different categories. Economic and political participation stand out as two categories with the most room for improvement.

One area where progress for women has stalled is senior leadership, the report found. The share of women globally being hired into senior roles has fallen steadily since 2022, according to LinkedIn data cited by the WEF. Some 36.4% of people hired into senior leadership roles were women this year, down from 37.5% in 2022. And while women represent 42% of the global workforce overall, the share working at the senior levels of their organizations has budged just over 1% since 2016, from 30.4% to 31.7%.

These findings come as female representation in US C-suites is faltering, too. To elevate more women to senior roles, companies can consider deepening their investments in upskilling, skills-based hiring, and caregiving resources, one expert told HR Brew.

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