Women continue to be “extremely underrepresented” in executive positions within the State’s financial services sector, commanding less than a fifth of the available roles, a new survey indicates.
The report by specialist employment law firm Littler found that women held just 18 per cent – or 120 out of 659 – of executive boardroom positions within the financial sector here in 2024.
The company noted that that was “virtually unchanged” from the previous year, when 18 per cent or 121 out of 687 executive boardroom roles were occupied by women.
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Across all board positions, which include non-executive positions, women held 32 per cent (or 765 out of 2,402 of board-level positions) at Irish financial services firms in 2024.
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This represented a marginal rise from 30-31 per cent previously.
“Women remained underrepresented in the top tier of financial services for the period under review and the data suggests that progress largely stalled at the executive level,” said Barry Reynolds, employment law partner at Littler’s Dublin office.
Mr Reynolds noted that while companies are making gradual progress in appointing women to non-executive directorships, there has been little to no improvement in the gender split of executive positions on the board.
These senior employment positions typically come with higher pay and the lack of women in them has implications for the gender pay gap in the upper quartile and overall, he said.
“Businesses must ensure they do not unlawfully discriminate. They are obliged to seek to reduce pay gaps, and they are well versed in the performance benefits of having a representative senior team of the best available talent,” Mr Reynolds said.
“Firms are recognising that the next stage in the improvement in gender balance in senior positions requires more focus on the part of employers,” he said.
“Gender pay reporting, as well as the impending pay transparency laws which are coming into force this year, are all intended to be catalysts for change,” Mr Reynolds said.
Littler is one of the largest employment and labour law practices with over 1,800 lawyers in more than 95 offices worldwide.
“Our office in Dublin highlights the importance of Ireland as a bridge to the US and the UK, particularly post-Brexit,” the company said.
Women’s low representation in leadership roles has attracted growing attention from policymakers and many companies are now measuring retention and pay levels to ensure better levels of equality.
A recent report from the Central Statistics Office here indicated women accounted for fewer than 20 per cent of chief executive roles in Ireland.
The agency’s gender balance in business survey found that 19.2 per cent of chief executives in the Republic were women in 2025, compared with 19 per cent in 2023, the last time the survey was conducted.
