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Women are making significant gains in leadership positions across businesses worldwide, while more companies report improved performance from gender equality and diversity initiatives, according to a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The report, Women in Business and Management: Scaling Success, found that women's representation in top corporate roles has increased markedly over the past decade. The proportion of enterprises with a woman serving as board chair rose from 13.1% in 2013 to 30.9% in 2025, while the share led by a woman chief executive officer increased from 23.4% to 28.2% over the same period.

Despite this progress, women remain underrepresented in management positions overall, holding just 30% of managerial roles globally. The report also points to uneven advancement across the leadership pipeline, with improvements concentrated at senior and top management levels, while representation at junior and middle management levels has declined since 2013.

The ILO said businesses are increasingly recognising the value of gender diversity. Nearly 70% of enterprises surveyed in 2025 reported that gender equality and diversity measures had improved business outcomes, representing an increase of more than 11 percentage points compared with 2018.

Among companies that linked women's leadership initiatives to higher profits, 87.4% reported profit increases of at least 5%. Enterprises led by women CEOs or board chairs were also more likely to report positive business results.

However, the report warns that progress could be difficult to sustain because implementation of diversity measures is declining, despite a broad commitment to gender equality policies.

While nearly three-quarters of surveyed enterprises said they had gender equality and diversity policies or similar frameworks in place in 2025, the proportion actively implementing related initiatives fell from 37.4% in 2018 to 26.5% in 2025.

The decline affected programmes widely regarded by businesses as effective, including maternity support measures and equal-pay initiatives.

“Gender equality is a fundamental right, and the evidence is clear that it is also a powerful driver of sustainable enterprises and economic growth,” said ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo. “The priority now is to turn policies and commitments into concrete, measurable progress.”

The findings come at a time when women are achieving higher levels of educational attainment than men in many parts of the world. According to the report, 46.4% of women were enrolled in tertiary education in 2023, compared with 40.3% of men.

Nevertheless, women remain underrepresented in business functions and sectors that often serve as pathways to senior leadership positions, limiting their progression into executive roles.

“At a time when enterprises are competing for skills and talent, leaving women's potential untapped makes little business sense,” said Maria Paz Anzorreguy, Director of the ILO Bureau for Employers' Activities. “The evidence increasingly tells us what works. The priority now is to put it into practice and scale it.”

The report recommends a series of measures to strengthen female representation in leadership, including building stronger leadership pipelines for women, adopting gender metrics and voluntary targets, expanding access to underrepresented sectors and roles, and embedding gender equality into broader business strategies and accountability frameworks.

It also calls for efforts beyond the workplace to address structural barriers such as unequal caregiving responsibilities, occupational segregation and persistent social norms that hinder women's advancement.

The findings are based on the ILO's 2025 global survey of 11,957 enterprises across 99 countries, supplemented by earlier surveys conducted in 2013 and 2018, labour market data spanning three decades, secondary research and corporate case studies.