Report charts progression of women in leadership roles

A report compiled by WE United brings together publicly available research, data and statistics to examine what it says are six key areas influencing leadership progression for women in the technology and electronics industry sectors.

The  Lead Forward report brings together research from companies like McKinsey & Company, Deloitte as well as institutions such as New York University and other interesting data. Although predominantly US-based (there are links to two pieces of research about the President’s Executive Order for DEI programs and the effectos of the ‘DEI Rollback’  reports) and US-specific research, including McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2025 and AAUW (American Association of University Women) research on racial pay gaps for Latina and Black women, there is also a look at Europe with Ravio’s 2026 Compensation Trends on the pay gap and the EU Women on Boards directive which is due to come into effect in June this year. There is also a link to the World Economic forum and LinkedIn’s white paper about the STEM gender gap which asks  if AI will increase or close the gender gap in STEM.

The WE United report is organised around C-suite and board representation, pay equity and compensation, women in STEM and technology, DEI-related corporate initiatives, entrepreneurship and access to funding, and policy and legislation with a brief description of research and links to the further reading.

“Leadership progression is not a single-variable issue, it is systemic,” said Jackie Mattox, founder and CEO of WE United. “When we look at representation, compensation, and opportunity in isolation, we miss the broader truth that multiple factors compound over time. This report is a call to action for leaders to think holistically and align decisions with long-term business goals. Balanced leadership is not only a values-based conversation, it is an essential leadership discipline for sustainable success.”

Among the figures highlighted is that in corporate America today, women hold 29% of C-suite roles and that this figure is remained unchanged for the second consecutive year. Another statistic highlighted is that women earn around 84c for every dollar earned by men, which amounts to an annual gap of roughly $15,000. Another interesting figure is that all-female founding teams received 2.3% of venture capital funding.

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