We are delighted to announce that we have published our second white paper, titled 'The Importance of Addressing the Gender Leadership Gap in Life Sciences, 2025'.
Since publishing our first white paper on this topic two years ago, we've decided to revisit the issue to gauge whether any significant progress has been made to close this gap.
To collect brand new data for this report, we reached out to more than 25,000 life sciences professionals with a survey to gather their views, lived experiences, and insights. And while we did see several signs of positive change, the overall results were largely disappointing.
According to the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, it will take 123 years to reach gender parity based on the current collective speed of progress. Now, that timeline is unacceptable. It’s not just a moral or social issue either – it's one that negatively impacts business. Diverse leadership brings a greater depth and breadth of experience, a stronger collective outlook, more perspectives, more innovation and so on. The longer we wait to address this gap, the more the industry stands to lose.
So, this white paper takes a closer look at what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what needs to happen next.
It explores some of the barriers that prevent woman from climbing the career ladder, including a lack of representation in STEM, underlying social biases, the motherhood penalty and even menopause. It goes on to examine how the gender leadership gap is detrimental to the life sciences industry as a whole and how a lack of female perspectives harms clinical research outcomes. But most importantly, this report outlines the practical steps organizations can take to start making significant changes that result in more diverse leadership teams.
Because, ultimately, waiting another century to see gender parity at C-suite level simply isn't good enough.
