The proportion of women hired into senior leadership roles in the UK has continued to fall, leading to only a slight increase in overall female representation since 2016.
This is according to data from LinkedIn published in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, which shows women represented 37.5% of hires into senior roles in 2023 and 37.1% of hires so far in 2024.
Since 2016, the overall female representation at the top ranks of business has increased by just 2.6 percentage points, to 31.3%.
WEF’s report ranked the UK 14th for gender parity out of 146 countries, taking into account economic participation, education attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. For economic participation and opportunity, the UK was ranked 58.
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Sue Duke, LinkedIn’s head of global public policy, said: “The slow progress that had been made in women being hired into leadership roles is now starting to erode from a peak seen in 2022.
“As the global economy has cooled, it’s women that have been disproportionately hit, reinforcing the systemic issues that hold women back in the workplace.
“But we are reaching a pivotal moment as generative AI starts to impact the labour market with a recalibration of the skills employers value most.
“These include soft skills which our data shows women are more likely to have, as well as technical AI skills which are increasing among our female members. Employers must ensure they apply a gender lens to their approach in up-skilling to establish the future workplace in a fair and equitable way.”
Globally, women represented just 25.9% of C-suite roles and 34.4% of director roles, compared with 46.9% of entry-level positions.
The sectors with the highest ratio of women in the C-suite compared with entry-level were consumer services (62%), education (59%) and government administration (59%). No industry has achieved gender parity in leadership.
WEF’s report suggested that the global gender gap will take five generations to close at the current rate of progress.
Iceland remains the most gender-equal country, having closed 93.5% of its overall gender gap. Other top-performing countries include Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Ireland.
WEF managing director Saadia Zahidi said: “Despite some bright spots, the slow and incremental gains highlighted in this year’s Global Gender Gap Report underscore the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieving gender parity, particularly in economic and political spheres.
“We cannot wait until 2158 for parity. The time for decisive action is now.”
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