International Women’s Day: A Leadership Responsibility

Many of those women paid a high price for raising their voices. International Women’s Day was born from labour movements and social struggles that sought dignity and fairness for women in the workplace and in society. Remembering this history matters mostly as a reminder that progress has never been automatic. Over the past few decades, women’s participation in education and the workforce has grown significantly. Yet structural inequalities remain visible across many dimensions of work and leadership. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, the world has closed about 69% of the overall gender gap across economic participation, education, health and political representation. Yet, at the current pace of change, full global gender parity is still projected to take approximately 123 years.

In the workplace, disparities remain visible. Across OECD countries, the average gender pay gap remains around 13–14%, meaning women still earn significantly less than men on average for the same work. Even when legislation mandates equal pay, structural facts (as career interruptions, occupational segregation, leadership gaps) continue to translate into lower earnings and slower career progression. Also, studies consistently show that, globally, women spend about twice as much time as men on unpaid domestic and care work. This invisible workload often coexists with full-time employment, making the experience of working motherhood particularly demanding. These structural dynamics influence career continuity, promotion rates and leadership pipelines.

There is good news, though: More women are entering higher education than men in many parts of the world.

Female participation in the workforce has grown significantly over the past decades. Many organizations are actively addressing leadership diversity and pay transparency. These developments matter. According to the McKinsey & LeanIn “Women in the Workplace” report, women today hold around 29% of C-suite roles globally. While this represents progress compared with previous decades, it also means that over 70% of top executive positions are still held by men. The issue is not only representation at the top—it is the pipeline that feeds it. The same research highlights what has been called the “broken rung”: women are promoted to their first managerial role at lower rates than men, with only 93 women promoted for every 100 men. When fewer women reach early leadership roles, fewer naturally progress toward the executive suite.

The Portuguese reality reflects a similar pattern. Recent data shows that women represent about 42% of employees in Portugal but only around 30% of management positions and roughly 17% of senior executive roles. In other words, the higher the level of responsibility in the corporate hierarchy, the smaller the female representation tends to become.

This is precisely where leadership and leadership decisions, matters.

As professionals working closely with organisations and boards, we see every day how leadership pipelines are built: through succession planning, sponsorship, stretch assignments, and the choices made when selecting leaders for critical roles. These decisions shape the opportunities that individuals receive and ultimately determine the diversity of leadership teams. Every senior leader has a disproportionate impact on organisational culture and opportunity. The leaders who decide who gets the next stretch role, who is considered for succession, or who is trusted with a P&L responsibility are also shaping the leadership landscape of the future.

So, this day serves as a moment of reflection about responsibility.

Progress toward equality does not happen by chance. It happens when leaders consciously build fairer systems:

• ensuring equal access to leadership opportunities
• challenging unconscious biases in promotion decisions
• supporting the career continuity of working parents
• expanding the leadership pipeline to reflect the full diversity of talent available.

Organisations that succeed in building diverse leadership teams are not only addressing fairness but also strengthening their capacity to understand markets, attract talent and navigate complexity. The women who fought for equality more than a century ago opened doors that had long been closed. It is now up to today’s leaders - women and men alike - to ensure those doors continue to open wider.

Leadership can accelerate change. Let’s use that responsibility well.