Impacting the missed generation

Over 25 years of missed opportunities

Our latest Women in Business report reveals the pace towards parity in mid-market firms isn’t moving fast enough. A young woman starting her career today will be working for more than a quarter of a century before she can expect to work at a mid-market firm with gender parity in top senior roles. Our research explores how gender balanced teams can bring better business performance – and with small and mid-market firms making up the largest part of the global economy [i], now is the time to keep up the pressure.

 

Women in leadership

Although some economies are close to reaching parity in senior leadership positions, the global rate of change is concerningly slow – advancing at a rate that would raise concerns if discussing the rate of economic growth. And yet both scenarios have similar, far-reaching consequences for the global economy.

Across the global mid-market, more than one in three senior management roles (34.0%) are held by women. This is an increase of 0.5pp compared to 2024 and shows that progress towards parity in senior roles has been tracking above the trend for the last five years.

Thanks to this progress, the point at which we expect half of all senior roles to be held by women has been brought forward from 2053 to 2051. This is a positive step for women and for mid-market firms. But with parity still over a quarter of a century away, there is a long way to go. 

Gender parity is not just a matter of equality for its own sake. It is also of paramount economic importance. Research from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that closing the gender gap in developing markets could lift GDP in these countries by an average of 23%. The mid-market, as one of the most dynamic forces in the global economy, has a key role to play in fulfilling this potential for growth.