Women hold just over a third of managerial positions in the European Union

Women hold 35.2% of managerial positions across the European Union, according to the latest data from Eurostat, released ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March.

The 2024 data indicates that among younger age cohorts, i.e those under the age of 39, women accounted for 39% of managerial roles. Among those aged between 40 and 64, women accounted for 34.4% of managerial roles, while for those aged 65 and older, women represented 26.5%.

In 2014, women held 31.8% of managerial positions across the EU, Eurostat noted.

Sweden leads the way

In terms of the EU member states that boast the highest share of women in managerial positions, Sweden led the way, with 44.4%, followed by Latvia (43.4%) and Poland (41.8%).

At the other end of the scale, Cyprus boasts just 25.3% of women in managerial positions, followed by Croatia (27.6%) and Italy (27.9%).

Over a ten-year period, i.e. from 2014 to 2024, 24 EU member states recorded an increase in the share of women in managerial positions, with the largest increases reported in Luxembourg (+13.7 percentage points), Malta (+10.1 percentage points) and Cyprus (+7.9 percentage points).

Several EU countries reported a decrease in the share of women managers, with Slovenia seeing a 3.8-percentage-point decline over the ten-year period, followed by Latvia (-0.7 percentage points) and Lithuania (-0.2 percentage points).

Across the European Union, the employment rate stood at 75.8% in 2024, with the Netherlands (83.5%) boasting the highest employment rate, and Italy (67.1%) the lowest. The employment rate for men stood at 80.8%, while for women it stood at 70.8%, resulting in a gender employment gap of 10.0 percentage points. Read more here.