The greatest inequalities are at the top: 72% of executive heads and 72% of board chairs are men.

A smaller proportion of organisations had female executive heads in 2019 compared to 2018. While recognising that leadership change is infrequent, nonetheless eight of the 140 organisations in our original sample had change in the head of the organisation during 2018/9. The overall effect of this change did not favour either men or women—thus the overall gender balance in leadership remained static.

Women tend to lead smaller organisations. In our sample smaller organisations (<100 employees) are three to four times more likely to be led by women than both medium-sized (250-999 employees) and large organisations (>1000 staff).

Among governing boards, seven male board chairs were replaced by women and two female board chairs were replaced by men between 2018-19.