The report Women in Business 2025 of Grant Thornton It reveals a worrying trend: without immediate measures, gender parity in senior management positions, in medium market companies, will not be reached until 2051. This finding highlights the urgency of accelerating the inclusion of women at the highest levels of business leadership.
Despite the advances in recent years, women occupy only 34% of senior leadership positions worldwide. This increase of just 0.5 percentage points – with respect to last year – highlights the slowness of progress. If this provision continues, a woman who starts her career today could wait more than 25 years before seeing an equitable representation at the highest levels of organizations.
“We celebrate companies in the average market for their agility and innovation. Their decisions can be a change catalyst. If we accelerate gender parity, we will see benefits as stronger economies, companies with better performance and more inclusive cultures. There is a growing pressure to act, but also an opportunity that we should not miss”he states Karitha EricsonGlobal network capacity, culture and Corporate Sustainability of Grant Thornton International Limited (GTIL).
Female leadership: progress and persistent challenges. Despite the advances in inclusion, progress remains unequal in various key sectors. In medium -sized companies, 47.6% of RR positions. HH., 44.6% of finance (CFO) and 33.3% marketing (CMO) are occupied by women, these being the three positions with the greatest female representation. However, the proportion of executive directors (CEO) has grown only 2.6 percentage points since 2024, reaching 21.7%, still below 28.4% registered in 2023.
The report Women in Business 2025 It also highlights the relevance of the average market, which represents 90% of global companies and generates two thirds of jobs worldwide. The lack of action in the face of gender inequality has a high cost: according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), closing the gender gap in developing markets could increase global GDP by 23%.
Latin America: an example of progress, but still far from parity. In South America, women occupy 37.2% of the management positions, which represents an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to last year. This region, led by Argentina and Brazil, continues to be a pioneer in gender equality in the corporate field.
“We know that companies achieve better results when they have a greater diversity of gender at higher hierarchical levels. They make better decisions, they are usually more creative and also respond better to crises, which is good for women is also good for companies,” affirms Matiana BehrendsPartner, responsible for human capital advice and consulting services, Grant Thornton Argentina.
In particular, in Argentina, in recent years there was an intense debate on gender equality and various broader cultural movements have increased the visibility of the problems faced by women. “The #Niunamenos movement put gender violence in the spotlight. Although he did not focus specifically on education and employment, he did in the role of women in society. We have also seen many political leaders in the last ten years and that has encouraged women to believe that they can assume leadership positions“Stresses Behrends.
This social impact is reflected in the corporate environment, where female representation in the high controls continues to progress, although insufficiently. Without concrete and effective measures, gender equity in medium market companies will continue to be a distant objective.
An urgent call to action. To change this situation, Grant Thornton urges business leaders to implement effective measures:
- Establish clear objectives of female representation in senior managementsince 63.9% of companies do not yet have clear goals in this area, which hinders progress towards gender equity.
- Foster mentoring networks and professional development that promote retention and growth of female talent. The companies that adopted Networking strategies saw a 61.1% increase in female participation in management positions.
- Demand diversity in your supply chains. More than 77.6% of companies have received requests from investors, customers or partners to demonstrate their commitment to gender diversity. 56.3% of those who responded to this demand increased female participation in their high command.
“The average market is the engine of the global economy and its success depends on a diverse leadership. It is not just equity, but to boost unprecedented economic growth. By accelerating gender equity, we create a more innovative, resilient and dynamic business environment for future generations ”, Emphasize Peter BodinExecutive Director of GIL.
The message is clear: gender equity in leadership positions is not only a matter of justice, but a strategic imperative to transform economies and strengthen global leadership. The action is urgent, and the opportunity is now.
by ma
