Interventions designed to level the leadership playing field<\/a> \u2013 gender quotas or targets, training, mentors, sponsors and role models \u2013 have had mixed results and progress is slow. <\/p>\n Even though it\u2019s 2025, women in Ireland are still underrepresented on boards, as board chairpersons, as CEOs, on leadership teams and in the upper payment tiers<\/a> at most organisations. Men are leaders and women are still largely on the support team.<\/p>\n What\u2019s really holding women back from leadership? Is it stereotypes, a lack of talent or ambition? Are they studying the wrong subjects? Or is the deck stacked against them from the start?<\/p>\n What about the role of employers in women\u2019s progression? Companies talk a good game but very few have achieved equality in their top teams. In 2023, campaigning group Better Balance for Business found that, in large Irish-owned private companies, women held 22 per cent of board seats and occupied 28 per cent of senior roles. <\/p>\n Progress is possible, though, when there\u2019s a focus on the numbers and a determination to solve the problem. Since 2017, female representation on the boards of publicly listed companies has increased from just 18 per cent to 40 per cent thanks to a mix of interventions within the companies and pressure from campaigning groups. <\/p>\n But do interventions actually work longer-term, especially when the spotlight moves on to other business priorities? <\/p>\n A just published World Bank<\/a> report \u2013 Promoting Women\u2019s Leadership: What Works, What Doesn\u2019t, and What\u2019s Missing \u2013 found the barriers to women\u2019s progression to be opportunity, motivation and capabilities. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Women hold fewer than one in five chief executive positions in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The report tried to find out which efforts to promote women\u2019s leadership work well and which ones don\u2019t. <\/p>\n Why is this important? Accelerating women\u2019s leadership is crucial for several reasons that go beyond equity and fairness, says the World Bank report. \u201cWhen qualified women face barriers to reaching top positions, society misses out on the competence they bring and organisations, institutions and communities lose the opportunity to have the best person in leadership roles.\u201d<\/p>\n Our own Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke<\/a> TD, has said: \u201cIn a more volatile world, realising a more balanced system of business leadership is important to enhancing the future growth and competitiveness of Irish business. <\/p>\n \u201cMore inclusive organisations are better equipped with the capabilities and diverse perspectives to advance innovation and successfully navigate change.\u201d <\/p>\n Real power vs tokenism <\/p>\n Leadership, whether it\u2019s in politics or business, is the opportunity to influence outcomes and the authority to make decisions. When more women are in political leadership positions, research shows better policy outcomes for everyone in society. In business, women\u2019s ownership and leadership has been found to further job creation and support economic growth.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the World Bank report found that these positive outcomes are only possible when women are given actual authority and power instead of tokenistic representation.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Increasing number of women in politics leads to more diverse policies, NWC report findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n In Norway, for example, growth in numbers alone made no difference. \u201cThe increased participation of women in corporate boards did not increase female employment, part-time work or employment of women with children, raising questions about women\u2019s ability to influence decision-making,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n The World Bank says \u2018substantive representation\u2019 \u201cis the ultimate benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of policies promoting women\u2019s leadership, as it captures not only presence in leadership roles but also the actual ability to influence policies, priorities and organisational or political agendas\u201d.<\/p>\n Sadly, tokenism is rife in Ireland: in senior management teams, at conferences and in the media. If one woman is part of the leadership team \u2013 or a woman chairs an all-male conference panel \u2013 that\u2019s the diversity box ticked for many. <\/p>\n They\u2019re not fooling anyone: featuring a single woman does not change culture, improve work practices or promote innovation. Companies need to stop using women as \u201cshow ponies\u201d and start promoting them to leadership positions with real power to copperfasten future organisational growth and competitiveness. <\/p>\n Workplace culture<\/p>\n How can companies and organisations design interventions that actually work and last? The World Bank says the entire pipeline needs to be examined. The report says its analysis builds on three premises.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, increasing the representation of women in leadership roles requires a sufficiently large pool of talented women.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond, the path to leadership is long, and women encounter barriers at every stage of career advancement. These barriers contribute to the well-documented \u2018leaky pipeline\u2019 phenomenon, whereby many women exit the trajectory before reaching leadership positions. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Government gender pay gap portal to fall short of promises made on International Women\u2019s DayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cThird, attaining a leadership role \u2013 the \u2018last mile\u2019 \u2013 may entail either the emergence of new barriers or the persistence of previously encountered ones in a more severe form.\u201d<\/p>\n In Ireland, we certainly have a large enough pool of talented women \u2013 women\u2019s educational attainment surpasses men\u2019s, for example \u2013 but the leaky pipeline is an issue. Women are underrepresented in higher-paying fields, particularly Stem<\/a>. They face barriers entering Stem industries and, if they do gain access, they exit these field at higher rates than from other sectors. <\/p>\n Thankfully, there has been some success with interventions designed to get more women into middle management. <\/p>\n \u201cCertain interventions, such as role models and training, can enhance women\u2019s participation in decision-making even in the absence of a leadership role,\u201d says the report.<\/p>\n However, the last mile \u2013 leadership with power and authority \u2013 is the biggest challenge in Ireland, as we can see from the persistently low percentages of women in leadership and the pay gaps<\/a> at the top of organisations. <\/p>\n Overall, increasing women\u2019s leadership remains a multifaceted challenge. Well-designed structural efforts and continued support, instead of short-term women-only interventions, have shown effectiveness in promoting lasting advancement, the report found. <\/p>\n \u201cComprehensive approaches that simultaneously target multiple barriers at various stages of the pipeline of women leaders and support women entering leadership positions through quotas are needed for sustainable progress.\u201d <\/p>\n Culture is everything when it comes to organisational change. <\/p>\n \u201cLeadership development does not occur in isolation but depends on access to challenging opportunities as well as recognition and support from key decision-makers. When women are systematically less likely than men to access these opportunities and networks of support, stand-alone interventions cannot fully close the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s stop pretending and instead start giving women a real seat at the top table.<\/p>\n![\"Women](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/KNFQ2SUF5RBPNN3EBUFLKBY77M.jpg\")
Women are underrepresented in higher-paying fields, particularly Stem. Photograph: Getty Images\/iStockphoto <\/p>\n