With Gender Parity In Leadership Decades Away, Here’s What Businesses Can Do In 2026

Women hold just 34% of senior leadership roles globally.

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While progress is being made to elevate women leaders, it may not be happening fast enough. A new research report titled “Women in Business 2025: Impacting the missed generation” from accounting firm Grant Thornton found that women are on track to reach equal representation in senior management by 2051, two years earlier than previously projected. However, today, they hold only 34% of senior leadership roles globally. That means in the U.S., representation actually declined one percentage point since 2024.

For Many Women, Career Advancement Is Getting Harder Before It Gets Better

As this author has previously written about, gender biases like the broken rung frequently prevent women from advancing beyond entry or mid-level positions. Consequently, women often must work twice as hard just to reach executive roles. And even then, many still face continuing hurdles like the glass cliff for instance, which is when women are promoted to leadership during times of crisis only to be replaced with men once circumstances stabilize.

Moreover, over the last year, Corporate America may have actually perpetuated gender biases and even reversed progress for women leaders, rather than advance it. The Conference Board’s new report, “The Recent Evolution of Shareholder Activism in the United States,” found that women leaders are being disproportionately targeted in shareholder activism campaigns. Between 2018 and 2025, women CEOs were targeted at around two and a half times their representation rate, facing 16% of campaigns that criticized leadership or demanded removal, despite holding only 6% of Russell 3000 CEO positions.

There are several instances of women leaders recently being pushed to step down due to shareholder activism, only to be replaced by men. Take Carrie Wheeler, former CEO of Opendoor, who stepped down from her role after shareholders advocated for her resignation. In Opendoor’s press release about Wheeler’s resignation, the company announced that a man, Shrisha Radhakrishna, would replace her on an interim basis while searching for a new leader. There was also Kirsten Lynch, who was ousted by an investor from Vail Resorts and replaced by her predecessor, Rob Katz, and Karen Lynch, former president and CEO of CVS Health, who resigned following investor criticism and was replaced by David Joyner. These patterns reveal that movement toward gender parity may not only be happening too slowly but, in some cases, is actively being undone.

Fewer Women Leaders Spell Weaker Business Results

Businesses can’t spare decades to wait for parity. Per McKinsey’s “Women in the Workplace 2025” report, the share of women in leadership at top-performing companies has increased by seven percentage points on average since 2021, while low-performing companies have made only slight progress. Yet only about half of the companies McKinsey surveyed cited women’s career growth as a high priority, with even fewer prioritizing women of color.

McKinsey also found that more companies are cutting career development programs for women, and there’s been a “notable decline in remote and flexible work options—which research shows can be especially helpful to women’s success at work.” At odds with what research shows is best for business outcomes, this rollback is concerning both for women and for the businesses who fail to invest in them.

Steps to Advance Women and Boost Business Performance in 2026

The link between parity and performance is unmistakable. Companies that prioritize gender parity aren’t only doing the right thing, they’re unlocking greater business potential.

Fortunately, businesses can utilize several reliable strategies to build toward both healthier gender parity and bottom lines as they go into the new year:

• Empower women through team building: In its report, Grant Thornton recommends that companies outline clear commitments to increasing women in leadership, strengthen support for current and future women leaders through mentorship and networking programs, and prioritize gender diversity when developing business partnerships.
• Invest in equitable opportunities and inclusive workplace cultures: McKinsey recommends that companies guarantee fair hiring and promotion practices and equip managers with tools to support their direct reports’ career development. McKinsey also suggests investing in employee resource groups (ERGs) to strengthen workplace community and encourage employees of all backgrounds to share perspectives, speak up about potential discrimination, and leverage empathy.
• Identify and address potential bias: The Conference Board notes that women CEOs face a perception bias, with activist investors possibly believing that “it’s easier to exert their influence over female CEOs.” As previously reported, actively evaluating whether these types of unconscious biases or stereotypes exist when making decisions around hiring, promotions, or, in this case, investor advocacy can help businesses identify bias when it occurs and determine appropriate action.

The question isn’t whether businesses can afford to prioritize gender parity, but whether they can afford not to. With proven strategies out there and clear evidence linking increased women leadership to business success, the only barrier left is action. Moving into 2026, organizations that act decisively now won’t only achieve gender parity; they’ll reap the competitive advantages that come with it.