Why, in 2026, are women still under-represented in senior leadership roles? That’s the tough question we addressed in episode 17 of The View, where Neil spoke to Rebecca Davis, CEO of West Midlands Employers, about public sector leadership, progression, recruitment, flexibility and the future workforce.
Keep reading to learn:
- Why the gender gap in senior leadership starts long before interviews
- How job design can discourage women from applying
- Why senior roles need to feel possible, not just technically available
- How executive assessment can create hidden barriers
- How better feedback protects future female leadership pipelines
- Why we can’t afford to ignore early careers pipelines
Watch episode 17 of The View now to see the full conversation.
The leadership gap isn’t (just) a selection problem
Rebecca shares a stark picture of senior leadership representation in local government across the West Midlands.
There are 32 councils in the region, 31 of which are WME shareholders. Across those councils, there are 29 chief executives (some authorities share chief executive arrangements)… but only five are women.
That’s less than 18%.
Rebecca’s clear that this isn’t down to any one barrier. It’s not something we can magically solve by changing one process, but a “long-standing legacy” shaped by many factors.
That means intervening at the point of appointment won’t fix the issue.
Because by then, the field has already been shaped by years of earlier experiences: who entered the sector, who stayed, who was encouraged, who saw a future for themselves, who built confidence, who had access to flexibility, and who was empowered to keep putting themselves forward.
Fair, inclusive recruitment processes are essential, of course. But they’re not a fix-all. To increase the number of women in senior leadership, organisations need to look at the whole journey.
Women may self-disqualify before they apply
Rebecca talks about applying for the CEO role at WME. Like many female candidates, she admits she looked at the role and didn’t think she was a particularly strong candidate. She was well-aware of those familiar narratives that affect so many women: ‘I haven’t done that before’; ‘I haven’t led that before’.
But she pushed through, recognising that she had lots of transferable skills, ideas and a strong proposition to bring to the organisation. So she applied, and the rest is history.
Rebecca’s experience captures a problem many organisations never see. Women who don’t apply never show up in your data. They just – disappear.
They may look at a job description and focus on the things they haven’t done. They might question whether they’re ready. They might assume you’re looking for someone with a more ‘conventional’ background.
That’s why job design, role storytelling and pre-application engagement matter. If senior opportunities are described in a way that emphasises exhaustive experience or narrow definitions of leadership, there’s a good bet you’re going to discourage the people you want to attract.
Leaving you with few women in your pipeline, and no chance to assess them fairly.
This bigger picture view – what might women be thinking and assuming before they ever enter your hiring process, and how can we meet them there – is essential to encourage more women into senior leadership positions.
Senior roles need to feel possible, not just available
Rebecca is candid about the reality of senior local government leadership.
These are demanding roles. They are visible. They can involve evening meetings, weekend support, crisis response and being on call when something happens in the locality.
This can make senior leadership feel daunting enough as it is. And then especially so for women with caring responsibilities – responsibilities which still disproportionately burden women over men. (As one example of many, ONS data shows women do an average of 60% more unpaid work than men).
Rebecca’s point isn’t that the job should be misrepresented. Senior leadership is demanding; there are no two ways about it. But organisations need to have better conversations about what’s genuinely required, what’s manageable, and how balance can be achieved.
That’s especially important post-COVID. Rebecca describes “sticky floor syndrome”, where senior professionals found flexibility in their current roles during the pandemic, and are now hesitant to move because they don’t know what flexibility could look like somewhere else.
If the pipeline of women who could move into leadership see the move as risking hard-win flexibility, that’s a powerful reason to stay put. Seemingly minor things like certain days for meetings can become a big source of inertia.
This makes flexibility a progression issue. If organisations want more women to move into senior leadership, they need to be clearer about expectations before the point of offer.
Talk openly about visibility, presence, hybrid working, evening commitments, support structures and how other leaders make the role work. A role being open is not the same as a role feeling possible.
Executive assessment can filter for capacity, not capability
Local government typically does a great job at fair recruitment practice. Rebecca points out that the sector’s often been ahead of the curve on panel interviews, anonymous applications and gender-neutral language.
But she does identify another big issue: the intensity of executive recruitment.
Senior campaigns can involve technical panels, assessment centres and final interviews with elected members. They can require substantial prep, often demanding candidates use annual leave and invest major time and energy.
You can see how if someone’s already unsure whether to apply, it nudges the dial towards ‘next time’. And it also creates another filter – testing not only who’s suitable, but who has enough spare capacity to participate in the process.
For women already in demanding senior roles, often juggling heavy workloads and life-loads, it’s a huge blocker.
A process can be technically ‘fair’ – panels balanced; managers trained on bias, etc – but still practically harder for some candidates to navigate. Which makes it unfair, but in a sneakier way.
Rebecca challenges recruiters, not to reduce rigour but to design assessment more intelligently. She argues for better, more pointed assessment that helps organisations judge fit earlier, rather than “processes that keep getting bigger and bigger.”
That’s a useful provocation for TA leaders:
- Does every stage of your process earn its place?
- Does every task genuinely inform decision-making?
- Does every interaction help both sides understand fit?
If not, your recruitment risks selecting for endurance and availability, not leadership potential.
High-quality feedback keeps women in the leadership pipeline
In senior recruitment organisations can be uncomfortable giving direct, specific feedback. Sometimes they “vanilla it” because they’re worried about saying the wrong thing or creating risk.
But vague feedback (or even ghosting) can be damaging longer-term. If a candidate’s told only that they weren’t quite right, they’ll probably fill in the gaps themselves – often retreating to those narratives: ‘I wasn’t senior enough’; ‘I wasn’t ready enough’.
Rebecca argues that candidates need high-quality feedback that’s specific enough to be useful, to help candidates build capability and confidence to stay in leadership pipelines.
Build your female leadership pipeline early
Senior leadership diversity doesn’t start with senior leadership recruitment. By the time you’re appointing a chief executive, director or senior leader, much of the pipeline’s already been shaped.
Who saw the sector as relevant? Who joined? Who stayed? Who understood how to progress? Who felt they belonged? Who was supported through the early stages of their career?
If we want to attract more women into senior leadership positions, we need to attract more women and keep them here.
- If young women don’t see a sector as relevant, purposeful or accessible to start their career, we’re losing our in-funnel.
- If they enter but find the workplace confusing or unsupported, they’re less likely to stay.
- If they stay but can’t see progression routes, they’re less likely to grow towards leadership.
People don’t suddenly become ready for senior leadership the moment a director role opens. They build readiness through years of positive reinforcement, visible routes, useful feedback, manageable transitions and support that helps them keep moving.
If organisations want diverse senior shortlists in the future, they need to invest in the earlier moments that make those shortlists possible.
The real question: where are you losing women?
This episode of The View shows that the number of women in senior leadership needs more than fair selection at the end of the process.
Organisations need to understand the bigger picture, to know where they’re losing women before that point.
- Are women seeing the opportunity?
- Are they entering the sector?
- Are they staying long enough to progress?
- Are they being encouraged to step up?
- Do senior roles feel compatible with real life?
- Are your recruitment processes proportionate?
- Does feedback help them try again?
- Are early-career women being supported into long-term progression?
If you want more women in senior leadership, you need to remove the hidden friction that stops women moving forward at every stage, from early attraction to onboarding, progression to executive assessment, rejection to future readiness.
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