Spain continues to consolidate its position as a benchmark, both at European and global level, in terms of female business leadership, and the Canary Islands is the second region in the country with the most women in charge.
The Canary Islands has a female presence of 42% in management positions, the second highest percentage in the country, only after the Valencian Community (44%) and two points higher than the national average (40%), according to data from the Women in Business 2024 report, prepared by Grant Thornton, which celebrates two decades of research on this issue.
This edition of the study, which for the first time includes the Canary Islands, Navarra and Aragon, shows that Galicia ranks third (41%) followed by the Community of Madrid (40%), and already below the national average (40%), are Navarra (39%), the Basque Country (38%), Andalusia, Catalonia (both with 36%) and Aragon (34%).
The Canary Islands is above the percentage of female managers reached in the whole of the European Union and also globally, with 35% and 33% respectively.
Spain, a world reference
At the national level, Spain has registered a historical rate of female presence in management positions of 40% in medium-sized companies in the last twelve months, a percentage two points higher than last year, which shows that the strategies in favor of female management leadership are working in our country.
Despite this, progress is still slow, and global data reflect that at the current rate global parity in companies will not be reached until 2053.
In Spain, the commitment adopted by the majority of companies to diversity and equality, and a greater social awareness, together with favorable regulation make Spain the country with the highest weight of women in senior management positions in Europe and sixth in the world.
In this way, the Spanish proportion is five points above the European average (35%) and seven more than that registered globally (33%). Spain, in addition, has reached 40% of female representation in positions of power two years before the date set by the European Union, and in line with the Code of Good Governance of the CNMV, which set this figure as a target for the year 2022.
The management positions of Human Resources (41%), financial director (31%) and CEO (27%) are the ones with the highest number of women at the head. Specifically, the figure of the CEO has been evolving to give way to female profiles, however, this increase has been only 18 percentage points in the last 12 years, at a rate of almost only one point per year.
It is especially significant that this impulse has been greater in our country than in others included in the study, which places Spain again in a leadership position, with a figure higher than both the European Union (20%) and the global (19%).
