The number of female managers is decreasing in one year in our country. From the historical 40% that our country managed to reach in the last two years, it has dropped to 38.4%, according to the latest data from the Women in Business 2025 report, prepared for 21 years by the professional services firm Grant Thornton in Spain and worldwide.
The report includes all types of positions of responsibility held by women, in private, public, listed, family businesses, etc.
This year's Women in Business study indicates that the Canary Islands has a female presence of 39.6% in management positions in companies in the middle-market segment, 1.2 percentage points above the national average (38.4%).
In this way, the Canary Islands is above the percentage of female managers reached in the European Union as a whole and also globally, with 34.6% and 34% respectively.
At the autonomous level, the data remains positive, although it reveals that in our country the presence of women in management positions is advancing at two speeds. On the one hand, Catalonia (44.2%) and the Community of Madrid (42.2%) are among the communities analyzed by Grant Thornton with a higher rate of female talent.
The following are regions such as Aragon (40.9%), Navarra (39.7%), Canary Islands (39.6%), Galicia (36.8%), the Valencian Community (36.1%), the Basque Country (35.7%) or Andalusia (28.3%).
With regard to variations compared to last year, the data also suggests the idea of uneven progress. Catalonia, with an increase of 8.2 percentage points, and Aragon, with 6.9 points, recorded the most notable increases in their rates of female presence in management positions; followed by the Community of Madrid (2.2 points) and Navarra (0.7 points).
On the other hand, there were decreases in the weight of female management talent in the Valencian Community (with a drop of 7.9 percentage points), Andalusia (-7.7 points), Galicia (-4.2 points), the Canary Islands (-2.4 points) and the Basque Country (-2.3 points).
“The labor regulations on gender diversity have been reinforced and companies have to be attentive to know if they will be obliged or not to incorporate them in the coming months. But, beyond mere compliance with the file, it is necessary to take advantage of the new regulatory situation to protect the business and achieve competitive advantages,” says Aurora Sanz, managing partner of Laboral de Grant Thornton.
Spain, global leader in management positions held by women
Despite the decrease registered of female managers in our country in the last year, this does not prevent Spain from being ahead of the European and global average in the number of management positions held by women, both with 34%, and it does not dethrone us from the number one position in Europe and sixth worldwide.
The historical series, in addition, indicates that the evolution of the presence of female talent in senior management in Spain has been remarkable, with an increase of 4.6 percentage points in the last five years and 12.8 during the last decade.
On the other hand, Spanish companies without women in management positions barely account for 4.5%, a rate lower than that of the European Union (4.7%), but still higher than the study average (4.1%). The evolution of this percentage over the years asserts the many advances that have been made in our country in terms of equality and diversity, since it has been reduced by 26.2 percentage points in just ten years.
