Five key takeaways from the 2026 Break the ceiling touch the sky® 101 Best Global Companies for women in leadership

Business Performance Trends. Index Companies outperform non Index companies financially:

Companies on the 2026 BTC 101 Global Index outperformed non-Index companies on both revenue growth and profit. The performance gap between Index Companies and non-Index Companies gets even more pronounced as you get to the least gender diverse led companies across the 500 Companies considered. 

73% of Index companies grew revenues versus year ago, vs 60% of non-Index companies

52% of Index companies grew profits versus year ago, vs 47% of non-Index companies

For the bottom tier amongst non-Index companies (Companies with the least gender balance across their boards and leadership teams – bottom 100 companies) only 48% grew revenues versus year ago, and only 44% grew profits). 

Growth in leadership representation: 

Gender balanced leadership continued to grow in 2026, recording continued progress 7 years in a row (since 2020).  Across the 7 years recorded, the USA, Europe and Australia  were executing best, and deriving maximum business benefit from increased gender balanced leadership at their largest companies.  

Overall Index companies average 41.43% women across Boards & Executive teams versus Non-Index companies average of 20.76% – startling contrast. 

Entry threshold into the Index rose from 22.2% women (2020) to 35.71% (2026). In fact for the 2026 BTC 101 Index  a massive 261 of the 500 Companies assessed beat the entry threshold score (22.2%)  achieved only by 101 companies in 2020  indicating that over half of the 500 have now caught up with the 2020 threshold  benchmark!  This is a real milestone for merit-based representation at the biggest business table in the world and indicates continuous adoption of gender balanced leadership as a strategic priority. 

Additionally, the top 10 companies show near parity in leadership representation.

Industry Representation:  Even more evident at the world’s most successful companies 

A very diverse group of Industries continues to accelerate gender balance  in the 2026 BTC 101 Global Index- led by giants including Food & drug stores, banks, pharmaceuticals, insurance, telecommunications, energy, petroleum, speciality retailers, energy, healthcare, household and personal products, Internet services, Beverages and medical Products –   highlighting the universal impact of women in leadership. 

Geographic leadership: Led by the USA, Europe, Australia. Much to be done across Asia, Middle East

The 2026 BTC 101 Global Index has representation from the U.S. (38 companies), Britain (15), France (14), Germany (9), Canada (6), Switzerland (6), Australia (5), China (4), the Netherlands (3), Spain (2), and others.

Companies headquartered in the United States, Europe, and Australia dominated the Index while Asia and the Middle East lagged behind.  Asia contributed only four companies to the Index – all from China, despite Asia being Headquarters to 198 of the world’s 500 largest companies, underscoring a major opportunity to accelerate gender-balanced leadership in the Asia region.

The Middle East is headquarters to  four of the world’s 500 largest Companies in terms of revenue.  None of these four made it to the 2026 index, indicating an immense opportunity for the Middle East to continue to invest in initiatives that are accelerating gender balance.  

CEO gender gap remains a huge opportunity

Entering 2026, only 31 women serve as CEOsin the world’s 500 largest companies — 6.2% — despite women representing a majority of global graduates comprising 60- 70% of the customer base of most leading retailers.  This indicates an immediate and urgent  opportunity for growth of women in C-suite representation globally.