New research has found a drop in the number of women in senior management roles in Ireland in the last year.
The annual Women in Business Report by Grant Thornton revealed that just 36% of women held senior management roles in Irish businesses in 2024.
This represents a 10% drop from the previous year when 40% of senior management roles were held by women.
"The drop in the number of women in senior management roles in Ireland over the past year is disappointing, to say the least," said Sinead Donovan, partner and chair of Grant Thornton Ireland.
"My concern is that this may not just be a blip in the system and now more than ever is when C suite leaders need to review their policies and processes to ensure we see a return to achieving more women being appointed to senior management roles."
"Diversity at all levels is needed in leadership to ensure that companies have a full depth and breadth of views; life experiences and styles."
But Grant Thornton also said that while the figures are disappointing, they demonstrate significant progress in the drive towards gender equality in the past decade.
Over that period the number of women in senior management positions has more than doubled from the 16% recorded in the 2014.
'We are now seeing businesses respond with a sense of urgency to ESG compliance and reporting, and rightly so," Ms Donovan said.
"Diversity is key to this and we need to see this being mirrored in boardrooms to ensure leadership gender parity. This will benefit not just business but will have a wider societal impact."
The company also released a separate study analysing two decades of research aimed at measuring and reporting on the representation of women in top roles globally.
It identifies three pathways for businesses to speed up their progress towards gender parity in senior management.
These include assigning responsibility for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) to both a C-suite member and a female senior leader.
It also includes implementing a standalone DE&I strategy with measurable goals.
While flexible working arrangements also need to be offered it says.
