Women held 18.4% of the positions on the boards and supervisory councils of 140 listed companies at the end of 2024. According to a study by 30% Club Poland, this percentage has increased by only 0.4% compared to the previous year. The leaders in gender diversity, such as the financial sector and companies from the WIG20 index, have seen declines, while medium-sized companies from the mWIG40 index have made solid progress. The authors of the study emphasize that these disappointing results highlight the need for a variety of actions to support diversity in company leadership.
Last year was a period of changes at the top levels of many listed companies, but this was not utilized to increase gender diversity. According to the study conducted by 30% Club Poland, 29 companies (one in five) still have all-male boards and supervisory councils. In comparison, in 2022, there were 23 such companies, and in 2023, 28.
“30% Club Poland has been collecting data annually for five years on the participation of women in leadership positions—both boards and supervisory councils—of the 140 largest listed companies, which are in the WIG20, mWIG40, and sWIG80 indices. By the end of last year, women constituted 18.4% of the leadership in this group of companies, which is not much. To put it in perspective, if we had a leadership team of 11 people, only two of them would be women. Moreover, the improvement in this situation over the past year was very small, as the percentage increased by only 0.4 percentage points year-over-year,” says Małgorzata Kloka, a member of the Steering Committee of 30% Club Poland, in an interview with Newseria.
By the end of 2024, women were responsible for 14% of the composition of company boards, meaning that for every six men, there was one woman. The situation was slightly better on supervisory councils, where women made up 21%. The goal of 30% Club Poland is to increase the participation of women to over 30%, a percentage that is considered the minimum for ensuring the voice of the minority is heard and can influence the majority. In the latest study, only 11 companies had more than 33% women on both the board and the supervisory council.
“A low percentage of women, whether in boards or supervisory councils, also translates into the fact that relatively few women lead these bodies. Among the 140 largest listed companies at the end of last year, we had only six women holding the position of CEO (4%), and only 16 women as chairpersons of supervisory councils (11.4%, the lowest percentage since the study began),” emphasizes Małgorzata Kloka.
The financial sector leads in terms of gender diversity, with women making up a quarter of the leadership in companies. This sector remains at the top of the ranking, despite a slight decrease in the percentage of women last year (by 2 percentage points). This reduction has narrowed the gap to the next sectors in the ranking: real estate and retail (both with around 21% women in leadership, and both sectors saw a two-point increase). The least diverse sectors are agriculture and food and industry, with women making up significantly below the average (10.3% and 13.7%, respectively).
An analysis of companies by size revealed that the most diverse boards and supervisory councils are in companies from the WIG20 index, the largest entities, where women accounted for 22% of leadership. However, this percentage decreased slightly year-over-year (by 0.8%). On the other hand, medium-sized companies from the mWIG40 index showed a significant, over three-point increase and almost caught up with the largest companies. Among companies listed on the sWIG80 index, the percentage of women was the lowest (15%) and also dropped compared to the end of 2024.
“The first conclusion from the study is that progress is happening, but it is extremely slow, disappointingly slow. The next conclusion is that we cannot take for granted that this improvement will continue. The best examples are companies from the WIG20 index or the financial sector, which saw a decrease in the percentage of women last year. The next and, I think, absolutely most important conclusion from this data is that action is needed—actions at many levels: educational, mentoring, internal actions within companies that will support diversity in recruitment, succession planning, or career paths, but also we need stronger external actions, such as the Women on Boards directive,” says Małgorzata Kloka, Steering Committee member at 30% Club Poland.
The lower you go on the corporate ladder, the more women there are. For comparison, women make up 40% of middle management. Experts emphasize that the indicators regarding the participation of women in the most visible positions may continue to rise, as there is potential for this. Firstly, statistics on education show that 63% of university graduates are women. Secondly, Polish women are highly entrepreneurial, have ambitions to advance, and express a desire to hold positions on company boards.
“There is a pool of talent. There are many women who are highly educated, have good soft skills, and are highly motivated—this pool can be used,” says Małgorzata Kloka. “Certainly, women are not helped by social roles and the disproportionate burden of household responsibilities. Additionally, in many workplaces, there are still unconscious biases and stereotypes that lead people to think of women as employees who are not necessarily interested in holding prominent or managerial positions. It seems to me that a barrier for women is also that they usually have weaker networking than men, and the higher up we go in the hierarchy, the more important this element becomes. Internal factors also play a role, such as certain personality traits, lower self-confidence, and lower self-belief in women, which are probably influenced by social conditioning.”
