Global Gender Gap in Labor and Earnings
The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025 shows the overall gender gap has narrowed to 68.5% worldwide, with economic participation and opportunity at roughly 60% closure. Women's global labor force participation stands at 47%, compared with 72% for men, and the estimated global gender pay gap remains at about 20% when median earnings are compared across full-time equivalent roles. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports women earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men in median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers in the latest available year, with wider gaps in finance and technology occupations.
Within finance, women hold roughly 25% of C-suite roles at major banks and asset managers, according to a 2025 S&P Global survey of large-cap firms. The share of women-founded startups receiving venture capital has risen to about 18% of total deals by value, up from 14% five years ago, though funding concentration remains high. On public markets, the number of women CEOs in the S&P 500 reached 11% in 2025, and women chair about 30% of Russell 3000 board seats, per Equilead data. These gaps influence asset flows, as gender-lens funds now manage over $15 billion globally, according to the Global Impact Investing Network.
Investing Behavior and Account Ownership
Fidelity Investments' 2025 Financial Women and Investing Study found that 67% of women now invest outside of workplace retirement plans, up from 59% a decade earlier, and women's average brokerage account balances grew 12% year over year. Self-directed trading data from major brokerages show women account for roughly 40% of new individual accounts opened in 2025, with higher engagement on fractional-share and ESG-focused products. Women also tend to trade less frequently than men, which research links to lower transaction costs and more stable long-term returns.
Regulatory filings and public company disclosures show a rise in gender-focused shareholder proposals. In 2025, the SEC's EDGAR database logged a 15% increase in proposals requesting gender pay gap data, and several large asset managers now publish annual gender diversity scores for their portfolio companies. Retail investor platforms report that women users are more likely to use goal-based savings features and robo-advisors, with women comprising 55% of new robo-advisor accounts opened in the first quarter of 2025, according to a 2025 report by the Investment Company Institute.
Corporate Governance and Market Performance
MSCI's 2025 Gender Diversity Index shows that companies in the top quartile for board gender diversity delivered median one-year total shareholder returns 4.2 percentage points above the median of the bottom quartile in developed markets. Nasdaq's board diversity rules, effective since early 2025, require listed companies to disclose board gender composition and have at least two diverse directors, which has pushed the share of Nasdaq-listed boards with a majority of independent directors to over 90%. The European Securities and Markets Authority's 2025 report notes that women hold 34% of board seats in the largest listed companies in the EU, up from 28% in 2020.
In private markets, Crunchbase data shows that venture funding to startups with at least one female founder reached $41 billion in 2024, representing 17% of total disclosed venture dollars, while the share of deals with all-female founding teams remains below 3%. Public company earnings calls tracked by Bloomberg show that companies with female CFOs are slightly more likely to provide detailed forward guidance on head