Six in ten UK employers fail to progress or retain women in line with workforce share

Six in ten UK employers fail to progress or retain women in line with their 49% share of the UK workforce, according to the 2026 Women in Work Gender Equity Measure (WiW GEM) Report, produced with LinkedIn.

The report combines LinkedIn analysis of 3,855 UK employers with Women in Work‘s tracking of 400 of the UK’s largest companies.

The analysis found 65% of senior roles are filled from outside the organisation, often from male-skewed talent pools, while 43% of new senior leadership appointments go to women. Women account for 49% of manager-level talent but just 40% of promotions into senior leadership, and at 61% of companies women are underrepresented in VP-level roles and above.

Of 400 of the UK’s largest companies assessed by the third annual WiW GEM Report, 90% of CEO appointments last year, 55 of 62, went to men.

With new gender pay gap legislation coming into force from April 2027, the report says employers will be required to show measurable action rather than simply reporting the gap. It introduces a new metric, the Female Progression Drop, based on nine years of gender pay gap data, measuring the difference between women’s overall representation within a company and their representation among its highest-paid employees.

Data and case studies in the report, including Lush and Octopus Energy, show some employers have stopped this drop, with women among top earners nearing their overall workforce representation.

The number of companies meeting all three GEM benchmarks rose 13%, from 121 to 137 of the 400 assessed.

Eleven companies went further, with pay gaps under 1% and boards at least 50% female: Aramark, Bunzl, Costco, Diageo, Haleon, H&M, Lush, Octopus Energy, Rolls-Royce, Severn Trent and Spirax Sarco.

Mariella Frostrup, co-founder of Women in Work, said: “After almost a decade of pay gap reporting, we know how big the problem is. Now we can see where it takes hold. Women are getting in, but they’re not getting on.”

Janine Chamberlin, UK country manager at LinkedIn, said: “Highly qualified women are driving exceptional results in businesses right across the UK, but too often the people making promotion decisions never see it.”