More women hold senior positions in business, but inequalities persist as men remain in leadership roles, as shown by the results of a survey released ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.

Despite some exceptions and laws that help strengthen of quotas for women members on company boards and for female executives, the road to the top remains long for them.

Research published last week by Equileap, which studies data on gender equality in the workplace, found that only 7% of CEOs and 17% of CFOs in large companies in developed countries are women.

“The battle for gender equality continues,” observes Equileap CEO Diana van Maasditch.

A 2023 World Economic Forum report noted that “the share of women in senior and leadership roles has been rising steadily globally over the past five years” with the percentage of women employed in leadership roles rising from just 33% in 2016 to nearly 37% in 2022.

But the overall figures on female representation in companies show that women remain a minority at the top level.

“The structure of the workplace has been shaped for the last 200 years to serve the needs of men,” says Tara Semlin-Jones, the chief executive of 25×25, a non-governmental organization that aims to improve gender equality at senior levels.

“The only way to get around this is to know that these structures are fair to women,” she told AFP.

A Deloitte survey of 10,500 companies in 51 countries with data from 2021 concluded that while almost one in five board members is a woman, the corresponding ratio for company heads is just one in 20.

In the US, women represent nearly a quarter of board members, but less than 6% of company managers.

In Britain women own almost 30% of board positions, but only 6% of senior executives are women.

Some countries, such as France, have enacted laws to regulate this gender inequality.

France tops Equileap’s list of gender equality in companies based on various criteria including pay, leave and protection from workplace harassment.

In 2011, France enacted a law that provided for quotas for boards of directors, in which the minimum representation of women should be 40%.

The changes “will pay off in the long run,” says Diane Segalen, president of employment consulting firm Segalen + Associates.

According to the Deloitte report, over 40% of board members in France in 2021 were women.

Ariane Boukai of Deloitte called quotas “a great accelerator.”

But while there is an increase in the number of women on executive boards, she says, “it’s more noticeable in HR and marketing.”

Currently only three of the companies listed on the Paris stock exchange have female CEOs.

In Germany, Belen Garrijo of Merck is the only female CEO of the 30 major German companies traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Last year in Italy Giuseppina di Fozza became the first woman to lead a major listed company in the country after she was appointed CEO of Italian energy company Terna.

In Spain, most of the country’s companies on the national stock exchange are run by men except Zara’s owner Inditex, which is led by Marta Ortega, the daughter of the company’s founder, and Santander bank, whose president is Ana Botín , who took over from her late father.

A recent 25X25 report found that women hold a “strikingly low” percentage of senior management positions — such as chief financial officer — that are considered stepping stones to becoming CEOs.

To change this situation, France introduced a law in 2021 that set the goal that from 2026 at least 30% of leadership positions would be held by women and from 2029 this percentage would rise to 40%.

This law, Boukai points out, “will encourage some developments. But the step is inevitably slow.”

With or without quotas, Semlin-Jones believes reforming the system is important. And that’s why investors should play a role.

“If their investment decisions are made 100% by white men from a very narrow social background, obviously this will have indirect effects on the system. The investment cycle must be held accountable. And asking questions like “how are these investment decisions made? How is it tolerated that these venture capital managers say, ‘Never mind gender. We don’t want to hear that.’ “.

Still, Segalen is optimistic that the representation of women will increase: “I think it’s going to happen in the next generation, which started in the early 2000s. They have older women who are role models and inspirers.”