Women still struggle to reach the top in business

Women often still find it difficult to break glass ceilings in business. Certainly, for several years, they have been gaining ground. Globally, more and more women are occupying senior management positions, notes a report from the International Labor Organization (ILO), which surveyed 11,957 companies in 99 countries.

In twelve years, the share of boards of directors chaired by a woman has more than doubled, from 13.1% in 2013 to 30.9% in 2025. Over the same period, the proportion of companies headed by a woman has also increased, although to a lesser extent (from 23.4% to 28.2%). However, the road to the summits still remains difficult.

Women remain generally under-represented in management positions, since they still occupy less than a third (30.5%) of these positions, even if this figure has improved slightly since 2000 (24.5%). On paper, companies are making efforts to reduce inequalities. In 2025, almost three quarters of them (74.8%) declared that they had an equality and diversity policy.

But the proportion of those implementing such initiatives has fallen recently, from 37.4% in 2018 to 26.5% in 2025, according to the ILO. “At a time when businesses are competing for skills and talent, failing to fully exploit women's potential makes little economic sense,” laments Maria Paz Anzorreguy, director of the ILO's Bureau for Employers' Activities.

Machine-translated from French