Female representation in senior leadership is stagnating. Here’s what HR can do about it

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.

Taking action now. The stagnation of female representation in senior leadership over the last six years “represents an alarming stall in economic progress for women globally,” Sarah Steinberg, head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn, told HR Brew. She pointed to “the imperative for leaders to act now to course correct before we really lose even more ground.”

Steinberg outlined three areas HR teams can focus on as they work to support women’s career progression:

• Upskilling and career growth. Steinberg said these investments are particularly important “at the pre- and middle-management levels.” As employers think about preparing their workforces to respond to demand for new technologies, like AI, “inclusive upskilling” can help ensure “women are learning and progressing in some of these high-growth areas,” she said. The share of female talent in AI engineering has more than doubled since 2016, according to LinkedIn data, but women still have a smaller presence in this industry, and are less likely to pursue online courses in AI and big data than their male counterparts, the report noted.
• Skills-based hiring. “Prioritizing skills over credentials and previous job titles” is another important step employers can take to improve gender equality in senior leadership, Steinberg said. She noted LinkedIn data has found taking a skills-first approach increases the candidate pool for women 24% more than it does for men. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup, made the case for this approach in a March column for Forbes, arguing that promoting people into leadership based on skills could boost gender diversity, as women tend to outperform men on some key soft and hard skills.

Caregiving resources. A lack of reliable childcare can hinder women’s labor force participation, and advocates are increasingly looking to the private sector to fill caregiving gaps in the US. Some employers are answering the call by investing in onsite or subsidized childcare for their workforces, as well as offering flexible scheduling. “Women disproportionately bear the burden of care—both childcare and elder care…so we really need policies to counteract that imbalance both at the government level and at the employer level,” Steinberg said.