Russia outnumbers the rest of the world in terms of women in leadership. A Grant Thornton survey

The Grant Thornton International analytical report “Women in business 2017: New perspectives on risk and reward” demonstrates that Russia has outnumbered the rest of the world in terms of women in leadership for the third straight year, with 47 per cent of senior positions being occupied by women. Moreover, the share of female leaders has grown by 16 percentage points over the last five years, from 31 per cent in 2013 up to the current measure. On a year-over-year basis this figure has grown by 2 per cent (47 per cent vs 45 per cent in 2016).

Globally, women in leadership account for 25 per cent, the 2017 survey suggests, the annual growth being 1 per cent. The survey further suggests that over one third of companies globally (34 per cent of total) do not have a single female in a leadership position. At the extreme end of the scale there are respondents from Japan (as few as 7 per cent of companies have women in leadership positions) and Argentina (only in 15 per cent of companies there are women among top management staff).

The surveyors also noted a wide sectoral segregation of women in leadership roles. The least number of women hold key positions in mineral mining and processing companies, in agriculture and construction segments (19-20 per cent). Whereas, in travel services, business supporting services and transport sector women occupy a significant 29 to 37 per cent share of leadership positions. Notably, statistics presented by the surveyors suggests that at today’s high-tech companies one in three top managers is a woman (28 per cent).

In attempting to find out what positions women hold and which sectors are dominated by women, the surveyors have revealed that 23 per cent of women are in charge of an HR function, 19 per cent of female respondents are in a financial officer position, 12 per cent of women occupy an executive officer position. You may find the least number of women playing IT leadership roles (as few as 4 per cent) and occupying high rank leadership positions, including presidential position, managing vice president and director position (3 per cent for each position).

Russia here again stacks up significantly against the rest of world. In Russia women account for 37 per cent of HR leaders and financial directors. A striking difference may be found in internal audit segment, with 8 per cent of companies globally having women as internal audit leaders, while in Russia internal audit function is headed by women in 73 per cent of respondent companies.

Click to learn more about the survey findings.


The survey “Women in business 2017” covered nearly 10,000 top managers out of 36 countries from a variety of industries and services sector.

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