Women cross 50% mark in four key industries, but C-suite representation lags: Report

New Delhi: By June 2026, women accounted for more than half of the workforce in four industries, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2026.

The report noted that 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.

Conversely, 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.


The report showed that overall workforce participation for women rose from 39.9 per cent in 2015 to 42.0 per cent in 2025 across the covered economies, before edging down to 41.8 per cent by June 2026.

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.

Addressing the movement from executive pipelines to top roles, the report said, "Even among executives with comparable CEO-feeder experience, women are currently less likely than men to become CEOs. This suggests that barriers persist beyond entry into the leadership pipeline, including in the processes and selection decisions that determine who ultimately reaches the top."

Female presence concentrated heavily in functional leadership 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.

In contrast, technical leadership remained low. The report mentioned that, "women represent less than one in five chief information officers (CIO) and just 8.6% of chief technology officers (CTO)."

A parallel trend emerged in corporate governance. Between 2014 and 2024, the proportion of board seats held by women rose from 15.2 per cent to 29.3 per cent. However, their representation in board leadership positions moved 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. Retail, energy, and construction each stood at around 9 per cent.

Among the top 100 Fortune Global 500 companies by revenue, the number of women CEOs rose from three between 2015 and 2020 to a peak of nine in 2023, before settling at seven in 2025.