It’s real. The gender gap exists and yet we are still talking about it.
Why? Let’s start with this! According to Deloitte’s Women @ Work 2023: A Global Outlook, 92% of women surveyed across sectors believe their organization is not taking concrete steps to fulfill its commitment to gender diversity.
We are less than five years away from the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) where SDG 5 is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
But the gender gap is still very real.
The astonishing numbers from UN Women’s Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals 2025 gender snapshot tell us that:
- 102 countries have never had a woman Head of State or Government
- Globally, women occupy 30% of managerial positions
- Approximately 343.5 million women and girls globally could benefit from closing the gender digital divide by 2025
Last month, parliament in Japan, the world's fourth-largest economy, elected its first-ever female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Fortune 500 is left with 52 female chief executives, down from 55 at the time of publication in June 2025. That’s a drop from 11% to 10.4% of companies on the list. Further, women of color remain scarce as Fortune 500 leaders.
Having recently celebrated a seven-year anniversary leading the Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN), the program aimed to elevate women to credit union leadership roles, I am reminded WHY the work is so important.
A program under the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, through GWLN’s work, we exist to
- Empower women to lead boldly and authentically.
- Create space for connection, collaboration, and mutual support.
- Amplify voices that have been historically underrepresented.
- Build pathways for leadership, innovation, and impact.
We know that gender-diverse boards improve company performance. Companies with more women in leadership are more profitable.
But we are way past preaching that women in leadership is good business.
Through my work, I’ve met women around the globe who have been the FIRST:
- CEO to lead their credit union/financial cooperative
- And only woman of color in the C-suite in their organization
- Board chair to serve in their financial cooperative
- CEO to lead a regional confederation representing 22 countries
- Latina CEO to speak on a global stage
- Scholarship winner representing her country in a global credit union conference
- Grant winner whose work directly impacts underserved populations in her local community
Without stronger interventions, women’s progress in financial services leadership risks stagnating. In the global credit union space, we still have work to do. According to the World Council’s 2024 Statistical Report, there are regions in the world where the median for women on boards of national associations ranges from 11% - 63%.
More action is still needed. Progress in growing the share of women in leadership in the finance industry requires:
- Bold initiatives to remove barriers,
- Systemic actions, and
- A combination of data driven analysis and performance measurement.
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report tells us that it will take 123 years to reach gender parity! We have an obligation for future generations.
Does your organization prioritize advancement of women in leadership? What actions are you taking? We urge you to take action and be part of the equation to change the numbers for women.
Join us at GWLN, get engaged and accelerate progress. Let’s stop talking about bridging the gender gap and change the narrative to read “She is ONE AMONG MANY WOMEN . . . and not the FIRST”.
And to quote Jane Goodall, the trailblazing scientist who passed away earlier this year, a woman who showed and inspired us all to lead with courage and hope: “What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
