He Advancement of women in management positions is moving more slowly than would be desirabledespite the fact that for several years his presence in command positions has been gradually advancing. But reality remains stubborn: according to LinkedIn Economic Graph, women make up 44% of the workforce, but they only occupy 31% of leadership positions, an area in which there has been barely 0.1% progress compared to the previous year.
In this context, Spain has a positive differential behavior, since it is the only country of the 16 in which the hiring of leadership positions is not declining. In fact, these hires have gone from 29.7% in 2019 to 32.2% in 2025. However, this improvement does not yet translate into a proportional presence in senior management. The challenge, therefore, is not so much to enter the market, but to convert participation into real promotion, with access to teams, budgets, visibility and strategic projects.
The gap is not diffuse, since it is concentrated in very specific moments of the professional career. In Spain, the representation of women ranges from 48.8% in entry-level positions to 43.5% at levels with greater experience. The most notable increase occurs when moving to positions of responsibility: from that 43.5% it drops to 34.3% when reaching junior manager positions.
The biggest drop occurs right after, in the transition from junior to senior manager, when it drops to 25%. In high-level management positions, those of “type C”, the participation of women drops to 25.5%: a total drop since the beginning of the career in female representation of 47.8%.
Prominent position in female leadership, little presence in technological leadership
According to Grant Thornton’s Women in Business 2026 report, however, although Spain has a prominent position in female leadershipwith 37.2% of women in management positions. This places the country above the EU (34.9%) and the global average (32.9%). But after reaching 40% of female directors in 2024, there have been two years of slight decline, which has caused Spain to leave the world’s top 10 to occupy position 14. In addition, the number of companies without women in management positions has increased to 7.8%.
In Spain, the gap between women in the workforce and management positions does not change between generations. Among Generation Z, women represent 49.6% of the workforce, but 34.1% of leadership. In Millennials, they are 47.4% of the total and 34.0% in leadership. In Generation X, 40.1% of the total and 27.8% of the leadership. And among Baby Boomers, 27.5% of the workforce and only 18.3% of leadership.
This gap is quite pronounced in sectors such as technology, in which according to the Women in Tech Statistics 2025 report, although women reach between 25% and 30% of technological positions globally, they only obtain 20% of high-level leadership positions, such as CTO or CIO.
In the country, the female presence in senior management positions related to technology, such as CIO or CTO, is still very low. 11.5% of CTO positions in companies in Spain are occupied by women, a percentage that rises to 13.4% in the case of CIOs. A low percentage compared to others, such as COOs, where the percentage rises to 20%, and CFOs, with 38.54% of the total positions filled by women. In the case of CEOs, it remains at 18.5%.
Managers in the IBEX 35: very few women in senior management technology positions
In the specific case of the companies listed on the IBEX 35 indexwhich offer quite limited information in this regard, have low female representation in specific management positions in the technological area. In it technology and telecommunications sectorAccording to the Atrevia and IESE report of March 2026, these positions are occupied by women in 12.96% of casesand only some companies stand out for their greater presence of women in management positions, such as Redeia, Iberdrola, Enagás, Colonial and Rovi, although not always in technical areas.
Within the committees of the boards of directors of IBEX 35 companiesthose of Innovation, Technology and Security have increased their female representation up to 45.83%. But this commission has significantly reduced the presence of women in the presidencies. Thus, in 2024 it had two women and three men, so it was 40% occupied by women. This year it has only one woman, compared to three men, which reduces its presence to 25%.
Only five companies out of the 35 exceed the parity of their management teamss: AENA, Enagás, Rovi, Redeia and Colonial, and none of them are pure technological. The reality is that In IBEX35 companies there are only around a dozen people responsible for technology, digital transformation or systemsand they are not only looking for counselors. Some of them are in companies such as Telefónica, Indra or Repsol.
