7 October 2026 | Cambridge, UK
For-profit companies are more likely than non-profit organisations such as charities and UN agencies to have workplace policies on gender equality, yet women chair just one in seven of their boards, according to Global 50/50’s annual study of 198 organisations active in global health.
The 2026 Global Health 50/50 Report, published today, finds that 73% of the companies assessed have a workplace gender equality policy with specific measures in the public domain, against 61% of non-profits. But women lead just a quarter of these companies, compared with 43% of non-profits. They chair 14% of company boards, against 43% of non-profit boards. Among the 11 pharmaceutical companies assessed, none has a woman CEO.
The findings come a year after Global 50/50 recorded declines on every measure it tracks for the first time since its monitoring began in 2017. That followed US executive orders dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and cuts to foreign assistance. This year, organisations have begun to regain some ground: the share in the top two of five performance bands rose from 38% to 45%. Among organisations with US federal funding in 2025, 17 restored commitments or policies they had dropped.
The recovery is uneven. Among non-profits, public commitments to gender equality are back to their 2024 level of 86%. Among companies, they have fallen from 81% in 2024 to 65%.
Who leads matters. A 2025 review of 137 studies from low- and middle-income countries found women’s leadership had a positive impact in 87% of them. Global 50/50’s 2025 Gender Pay Gap analysis of 45 UK-based organisations found that those led by a woman CEO have smaller median gender pay gaps, on average, than those led by men. Across all 198 organisations assessed, women hold 38% of CEO roles. At current rates, parity will not arrive until 2039.
‘Among the organisations we assess, companies lead on workplace policy, then fall away the moment the questions turn to power and purpose. Women chair one in seven company boards, and not one of the pharmaceutical companies we assess has a woman chief executive. A policy on paper isn’t power in practice. Companies have shown they can write the policies. Now they need to share the power.’
Dr Lynsey Robinson, Health Lead, Global 50/50
‘Last year, for the first time since our monitoring began, every measure we track went backwards. We’re in a landscape without precedent, with gender equality under organised attack. Yet some organisations that dropped commitments under that pressure have put them back. Commitments survive when they’re defended – by the organisations that make them, and by everyone with the power to hold them to account.’
Professor Sarah Hawkes, Co-CEO, Global 50/50
The report sets out six asks of the organisations assessed and the funders and governments whose choices they mirror, with practical tools to help organisations act on them. Scores and trends for every organisation since 2018 are available in the Gender and Health Index dashboard.
Notes to editors
About Global 50/50. Global 50/50 is an independent gender justice think tank holding the world’s most powerful institutions to account on gender. Its annual Global Health 50/50 Report scores organisations that work in or influence global health on their public commitments to gender equality, their workplace policies and who leads them.
The sample. The 2026 report, Regaining (some) ground, assesses 198 organisations across 37 countries that together employ more than four million people. 145 are non-profit organisations, including UN bodies, non-governmental organisations, multilateral and bilateral agencies and philanthropic funders. 53 are for-profit: 42 private for-profit companies, including pharmaceutical, food and drink, consumer goods and medical technology companies and industry associations, and 11 consultancy firms. All figures refer to this sample.
Key figures (2026):
- workplace gender equality policies: companies 73% (37/51), non-profits 61% (85/139)
- women CEOs: companies 25% (13/53), non-profits 43% (62/145), all organisations 38% (75/198)
- women board chairs: companies 14% (7/50), non-profits 43% (53/124), all organisations 34% (60/174)
- top two performance bands: 38% (76/198) in 2025, 45% (90/198) in 2026
- parity projected in 2033 for board chairs and 2039 for CEOs
- Trends. Commitment trends use organisations monitored since 2020: companies 81% (2024) to 65% (2026); non-profits 86% in both years. Among the 72 organisations with US federal funding followed since 2024, 17 restored 26 top scores (commitments or policies they had dropped in 2025), but the group remains below its 2024 level on every measure.
- Sector analysis. The pharmaceutical figure is Global 50/50’s analysis of the 11 pharmaceutical companies within the Index’s private sector group, using Gender and Health Index data. It does not appear in the report.
Method. Organisations are scored on publicly available information, and every organisation was invited to review its results; 70 validated or partially validated their data.
Report and data. Read the 2026 report. Explore the Gender and Health Index dashboard.
Find out more
Read the full report, explore the data behind the findings, or contact the press office to arrange an interview with Dr Lynsey Robinson.
