Europe’s Flagship Gender Report Sheds Light on Academic Progress
The European Commission’s She Figures series has long served as the definitive benchmark for tracking women’s participation across research and innovation. The 2025 edition, drawing on the latest available data, underscores a notable long-term shift in higher education leadership. Women now occupy a substantially larger share of the most senior academic posts than they did fifteen years ago, with the proportion in top-grade positions nearly doubling since 2010. This development arrives at a time when European universities face intensifying competition for talent and when policymakers are increasingly focused on maximising the contribution of all researchers to the continent’s innovation capacity.
While the headline improvement is encouraging, the report also documents persistent imbalances. Women continue to be underrepresented in many STEM disciplines at doctoral level and remain a minority in the highest decision-making roles within higher-education institutions. The findings therefore present both a story of measurable advancement and a clear reminder that structural barriers have not yet been fully dismantled.
Understanding the Academic Career Ladder in Europe
European higher-education systems typically classify academic staff into four grades. Grade C covers entry-level postdoctoral researchers, Grade B encompasses mid-career positions such as associate professors, and Grade A denotes the most senior posts, equivalent to full professorships. A separate category tracks heads of institutions, including rectors, presidents and vice-chancellors. She Figures follows cohorts through these stages, revealing where women’s representation rises or falls.
The 2025 data show that gender parity has been achieved at bachelor, master and doctoral levels across the European Union as a whole. Balance also exists among Grade C and Grade B staff. The picture changes sharply at Grade A, where women hold approximately 30 percent of positions. Among heads of institutions the figure stands at 26 percent. These proportions represent clear progress from earlier editions of the report, yet they remain well below the levels seen in student and early-career cohorts.
From 2010 to 2025: Measuring the Doubling of Women in Senior Roles
Comparable data stretching back to 2010 indicate that women’s share of Grade A positions has risen from roughly 15 percent to the current 30 percent. The increase reflects both the cumulative effect of expanded doctoral cohorts and targeted national and institutional policies introduced over the intervening years. Several member states have recorded even steeper gains, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, where women now constitute more than one-third of full professors in some countries.
The doubling is not uniform. In engineering and technology fields the rise has been more modest, and women still account for only about one-fifth of Grade A staff in those disciplines. Nevertheless, the overall trajectory demonstrates that sustained policy attention, combined with demographic shifts in the student population, can produce tangible movement toward parity at the apex of the academic career ladder.
STEM Fields Continue to Show the Widest Gaps
Despite overall gains, information and communication technologies stand out as an area of concern. Only 22 percent of doctoral graduates in ICT are women, a figure that has remained largely static in recent years. Similar patterns appear in engineering and mathematics, where women’s representation at doctoral level hovers between 27 and 37 percent depending on the narrow field. These imbalances feed directly into the composition of senior academic posts, because the pipeline of candidates for professorships originates at the doctoral stage.
Life sciences and health sciences present a more balanced picture, with women comprising closer to 45 percent of doctoral graduates and roughly one-third of Grade A positions. The contrast illustrates the importance of field-specific interventions rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
Leadership Beyond Professorships: Institutional Governance
Reaching the rank of full professor is only one step toward influencing institutional direction. The 2025 report also examines the gender balance of governing boards and senior management teams. Women occupy 39 percent of board-member positions and 39 percent of board-leadership roles at EU level, figures that approach parity. Yet the proportion of women serving as heads of institutions remains at 26 percent, indicating that additional barriers exist between senior academic posts and the very top executive positions.
National variations are pronounced. Some countries have introduced statutory requirements or incentive schemes that have lifted female representation in rectorships above 40 percent, while others continue to report figures below 20 percent. These differences underscore the role of national policy frameworks in shaping outcomes.
Barriers That Persist Despite Numerical Gains
Qualitative evidence gathered alongside the statistics points to several enduring obstacles. Work-life balance pressures remain acute, particularly during the years when researchers typically seek promotion to Grade A. Unconscious bias in recruitment and promotion panels continues to be documented in multiple studies commissioned by member states. In addition, the report notes that only a small minority of research projects incorporate a gender dimension in their design, limiting the visibility of women’s contributions in certain fields.
Funding patterns also reveal disparities. Women researchers receive, on average, slightly lower grant amounts than their male counterparts, although the gap has narrowed in recent funding cycles. The combination of these factors helps explain why the leaky pipeline, while less severe than in previous decades, has not been entirely sealed.
Policy Responses Across the European Research Area
In response to successive She Figures editions, the European Commission and member states have rolled out a range of measures. Gender Equality Plans are now mandatory for participation in Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research programme. More than 80 percent of calls for proposals now include explicit requirements to address the gender dimension. Training programmes for recruitment panels, mentorship schemes for early-career researchers, and targets for female representation on decision-making bodies have become standard features at many universities.
National initiatives vary in ambition. Some countries have introduced cascade models that set progressive targets for each career grade, while others rely on voluntary charters and awards. The 2025 report highlights examples where institutions have achieved rapid shifts through transparent promotion criteria and dedicated funding streams for gender-balance measures.
Implications for Europe’s Research and Innovation Capacity
Under-representation of women at the highest levels carries economic and scientific consequences. Research teams that lack diversity have been shown in multiple studies to produce narrower ranges of questions and solutions. With Europe seeking to strengthen its position in artificial intelligence, green technologies and health innovation, maximising the talent pool is not merely an equity issue but a competitiveness imperative.
Universities that have successfully increased female representation in senior roles report benefits in staff retention, student recruitment and external partnerships. These institutional gains reinforce the case for continued investment in structural reforms.
Looking Ahead: Targets and Monitoring
The European Research Area policy framework sets out ambitions for further progress by 2030. Updated monitoring indicators in the 2025 She Figures edition will allow policymakers to track whether the rate of improvement accelerates or stalls. Particular attention will be paid to the integration of gender considerations in research content and to the representation of women among patent holders, where the current figure stands at only 9 percent.
Stakeholders across the sector emphasise that numerical targets alone are insufficient. Cultural change within departments, sustained support for work-life balance, and robust mechanisms for addressing bias remain essential complements to quota-style interventions.
Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash
Conclusion: A Milestone, Not a Destination
The near-doubling of women in Europe’s top academic roles since 2010 marks a significant achievement for the higher-education sector. It demonstrates that coordinated policy action, institutional commitment and generational change can shift entrenched patterns. At the same time, the 2025 data make clear that parity has not yet been reached in every discipline or at every level of leadership.
European universities, national ministries and the European Commission now have a clearer evidence base with which to refine existing strategies. The coming years will reveal whether the momentum built over the past decade can be maintained and accelerated, ensuring that the full potential of Europe’s research community is realised.
