Exploring women’s representation at the top of leading social enterprises

Social enterprises (SEs) have great potential for the promotion of gender-balanced corporate governance and decision-making. The limited research on the subject has shown that women are still under-represented in SE leadership positions. However, no generalizable studies exploring women’s representation in corporate governance and managerial roles within the SE environment are available. In an attempt to gain more knowledge about the potential for SEs to achieve gender-balanced corporate leadership, this study explores women’s representation at the top of a sample of 60 world leading SEs operating in different continents in a variety of macro-sectors of activity. A quantitative analysis of the data from the SEs sampled was performed by combining descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings offer an overall picture of women’s representation at the top of SEs. They show how representation is spread differently in the various sectors of activity and in different geographical areas. Despite SEs not having yet reached a gender-balanced corporate leadership on a global scale, the great potential for SEs to encourage women’s involvement in decision-making was confirmed. Research implications are identified, and greater efforts are recommended so that this potential can be substantiated in achieving gender-balanced management and governance systems.