Women dominate HR roles but still lag in marketing and tech: report
WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2026 finds women hold most HR and healthcare jobs but remain scarce in technical leadership roles
A major report on women's participation in the corporate world has found that while women have strengthened their presence in business and non-technical service sectors worldwide, they remain underrepresented in technical industries.
Women's share of the workforce has crossed 50 percent in four major sectors, including education and healthcare, but their presence in technical industries is still a quarter or less, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2026, based on a study of 39 economies.
The report found that women's overall share of the workforce in these economies was 39.9 percent in 2015 and had been projected to rise to 42.0 percent by 2025. But by June 2026 it had dipped slightly to 41.8 percent. Over the same period, women's participation in healthcare, education, customer service and government and private services sectors reached 50 to 60 percent.
Sector-wise, women make up 59.9 percent of the healthcare workforce, 54.2 percent in education, 51.7 percent in customer service and 50.6 percent in government and private services. In oil and gas and mining the figure is 25.2 percent, and in infrastructure it is 23.6 percent. Among leadership roles, women hold 25 percent of COO positions, 19.1 percent of CEO positions and only 8.6 percent of CTO positions.
The report says women still have a long way to go for greater representation in senior management and leadership positions. Their share of roles such as vice president, C-suite positions and board of directors, in both government and private companies, remains low. This share was 26.7 percent in 2015, rising to 29.4 percent by 2023, but has stayed roughly flat since. Among C-suite roles, women hold only 19.1 percent of CEO positions and 25 percent of COO positions.
According to the report, women lead in C-suite roles where direct people connection, conduct and functional leadership matter more. Women hold about 75 percent of chief HR officer and chief people officer positions. Similarly, one in five chief information officers is a woman. However, women's share of chief marketing officer roles is below 50 percent, and in chief technology officer roles it is just 8.6 percent.
Although women are getting fewer entries into top corporate board positions, their overall board participation has grown. Between 2014 and 2024, women's representation on boards rose from 15.2 percent to 29.3 percent. However, their share of board leadership positions rose by only two percentage points, from 3.2 percent to 5.2 percent.
The number of women CEOs among Fortune Global 500 companies rose from 14 in 2015 to 32 in 2025, taking their share of the role from 2.8 percent to 6.4 percent. By sector, 17 percent of CEOs in utilities are women, 11 percent in telecom and media, and nine percent each in retail, energy and construction. Among the top 100 companies, the number of women CEOs rose from three between 2015 and 2020 to seven in 2025.
