After a decade of tracking women’s representation in leadership, the latest data still reads as incremental progress rather than a structural shift. Women now hold 13.6% of management board positions and 18.7% of seats on supervisory boards in companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, according to a recent report by the Women Leadership in Business Foundation. The increase over time is measurable, but marginal. More telling is that 61% of companies still have no women on their management boards at all, an alarming statistic, albeit on that is inching down over the past few years.
This disconnect between participation and power is a recurring theme across sectors. As Joanna Erdman, President of the Board, Cashless Poland Foundation, notes, “Women make up over 60 percent of banking employees in Poland, but their participation declines at higher levels.” The pipeline exists, but it fails to progress.
The regulatory environment is beginning to catch up with this reality. The EU’s Women on Boards directive sets a target of at least 33% participation of the underrepresented gender in corporate leadership, but the current baseline suggests that many companies will struggle to meet it without deliberate intervention. At the current pace, organic change will not be enough.
Women leaders interviewed for this issue are largely aligned on that point. Progress, they argue, does not come from time alone, but from design. As Agnieszka Szopa-Maziukiewicz, Vice President of BIK and CEO of Digital Fingerprints, puts it, “Progress is possible, but it requires deliberate action. Transparent career paths, equal pay, flexible work models, and active promotion of talent make a real difference.”
Without pressure, measurement, and intentional change, the system does not course-correct on its own, it seems, but instead reproduces itself.
Careers are built, not planned
But while the data shows how slowly the system moves, individual careers often tell a very different story. They are rarely linear and tend to reward those willing to take risks.
Across our interviewees, few leaders describe a clearly mapped path to the top. What emerges instead is a pattern of detours, lateral moves, and moments that only reveal their significance in hindsight. “Leadership is rarely a straight line. It is built through bold choices, support from others, and the willingness to grow through change,” says Beata Karasińska, General Manager CEEMEA at Baxter.
At the same time, many leaders argue that the barriers women face are not always overt. While few point to insurmountable obstacles or active resistance, some highlight patterns that can quietly shape outcomes. “I do not believe in ‘glass ceilings,’ but I believe in ‘glass corridors.’ At an early stage, people step into specific development paths. If you want to move vertically into top leadership, you need to consciously choose the corridors that lead there,” says Anna Włodarczyk-Moczkowska, President of Compensa TU S.A. Vienna Insurance Group.
That choice is not always straightforward. The system continues to reward consistency and uninterrupted progression, something that is not equally accessible to everyone. As Aneta Podyma, CEO of Unum Życie, explains: “Increasingly, we see women’s careers stall because of a ‘broken rung,’ a moment early in their careers when, often due to family decisions and social pressure, their professional path slows down or stops. This is where the gap begins, which later translates into lower representation of women in top positions.”
In many cases, advancement comes less from following a defined plan and more from responding to opportunity, often before it feels fully earned. Agnieszka Głowacka, Vice President at ERBUD, points to the role of seemingly small interventions: “I can clearly recall moments when one conversation or one piece of advice made a real difference in my career.”
Taken together, these patterns help explain why similar levels of competence do not always lead to similar outcomes. Systems that rely on informal signals tend to reward visibility and confidence as much as capability.
The confidence gap
If careers are shaped by opportunity, they are also shaped by how individuals respond to it. One theme comes up with unusual consistency: hesitation at the point of stepping up.
It is not framed as lack of competence. Quite the opposite. The issue is the threshold for action. As Katarzyna Kowalska, Deputy CEO & CRO, KUKE, puts it, “We often feel we need to be 200% ready before taking on a new challenge.” In practice, that delay matters. Roles are filled by those who signal readiness earlier, not necessarily those who are more prepared.
Several leaders describe this as one of the most persistent, and least visible, barriers. Advice from senior leaders often sounds deceptively simple. “You do not need to be perfect. You need to be good enough, determined, and willing to grow,” says Anna Włodarczyk-Moczkowska, President, Compensa TU S.A. Vienna Insurance Group. In environments where expectations are uneven, waiting for certainty becomes a disadvantage.
There is also a communication layer to this. As Krystyna Swojak, Managing Director, Top Woman in Real Estate, observes, “Women downplay their accomplishments by saying, ‘It’s nothing’ or ‘I just did my job,’ even when their impact was significant. This isn’t about competence; it’s about mindset and communication. Many women haven’t been taught to speak about their successes.”
These patterns point to a gap that is less about ability and more about calibration, of readiness, of self-presentation, and of how organizations interpret both.
Quotas, myths, and market reality
With representation of women in leadership still well below the 33% threshold set by the EU directive, the debate around quotas remains as pertinent as ever.
For some leaders, quotas are a corrective mechanism, not an end goal. As Jolanta Sawińska, Regional Director, Raben Logistics Polska, puts it, “Mechanisms like quotas can help open doors for future generations of women who are competent and qualified.” The emphasis here is on access. Quotas do not create talent, they expose where it has been overlooked.
Quotas, however imperfect, function as a forcing mechanism. They accelerate a process that would otherwise take decades, not because change is impossible, but because it is too easily deferred.
The business case reinforces that argument. “Companies with the highest gender diversity in leadership are about 25–30% more likely to achieve above-average financial performance,” notes Aneta Podyma, CEO, Unum Życie. In that sense, diversity is not positioned as a social obligation, but as a factor linked to outcomes.
What complicates the discussion is the persistence of assumptions that no longer hold. Certain sectors still carry the label of “male-dominated,” yet the reality on the ground is shifting. “Seeing a woman on a construction site no longer causes surprise as it once did. Women are increasingly taking on project management roles and are also proving themselves in highly precise fit-out work,” says Jolanta Augustyniak-Praczyk, Project Director, Neo-Świat.
What actually moves the needle
If there is one area where the interviews converge most clearly, it is that policies matter, but they are not decisive on their own. Progress depends on consistency. Not one-off initiatives, but repeated, deliberate actions at every level of the organization. “Mentoring is crucial, especially early in a career and when moving into leadership,” says Justyna Roman, Project Director at Neo-Świat.
Formal programs, mentoring and reskilling schemes, and diversity targets set direction. But they do not determine outcomes unless they are reinforced by everyday behavior. As Agnieszka Matłoka, Associate Partner, Sustainability, Civitta Poland, notes, “It is not only about formal programs but also about everyday behaviors, like who is invited to the table, whose voice is heard, and who is supported in taking the next step.”
This is where culture becomes measurable, not in declarations, but in patterns. Who gets recommended. Who is trusted with risk. Who is given room to fail and try again. “Real solidarity among women in business starts with everyday actions, by supporting, recommending, and trusting one another,” sums up Jolanta Sawińska from Raben.
The companies that are moving fastest are not necessarily those with the most ambitious statements, but those that have embedded these practices into how decisions are made. They measure representation, track progression, and treat diversity as a performance issue rather than a reputational one. The rest are still navigating the gap between intent and execution.
Where are we after ten years?
After ten years, one thing is clear: good intentions are not enough. We need decisiveness, a long-term approach to succession, and real accountability on the part of management and supervisory boards for building diverse teams
When we first began measuring the representation of women in the leadership of listed companies, we hoped that transparency alone would become a catalyst for real change. A decade later, we do see progress, but it is far too slow to be called success. Women remain a minority on the management and supervisory boards of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and the pace of change does not match either the potential of Polish women leaders or the challenges facing the Polish economy.
There is no shortage of evidence today that diversity in decision-making bodies delivers tangible business benefits: greater resilience in times of crisis, better risk management, higher levels of innovation, and stronger financial performance. And yet we continue to operate in a reality where the “glass ceiling” is not a metaphor, but a real barrier embedded in promotion systems, organizational cultures, and the very way leadership is defined.
The report makes this clear: women are well educated, experienced, and ready to take on top roles, but they are still too rarely given a genuine opportunity. This is often not due to a lack of competence, but because the system continues to reward uniformity, repetition, and safe patterns. As a result, companies are wasting a form of capital they simply cannot afford to lose today, the capital of talent.
A particularly important warning sign is that even regulations such as the EU Women on Boards directive do not automatically translate into qualitative change. Legislation can open doors, but it is up to business leaders to decide who walks through them, and whether the change is lasting rather than merely statistical.
After ten years, one thing is clear: good intentions are not enough. We need decisiveness, a long-term approach to succession, and real accountability on the part of management and supervisory boards for building diverse teams. Gender equality in business is not a social aspiration, it is a condition of competitiveness. If we want Polish companies to grow faster and more intelligently, we must finally stop wasting talent.
Meet the leaders shaping the conversation
The women quoted throughout this report are among the executives featured in our Liderki: Women Leaders 2026 interview series — a collection of in-depth conversations with senior leaders driving change across Polish business. Their insights on career development, organizational culture, and the future of women in leadership go far beyond what statistics alone can tell us.
Baxter, Beata Karasińska General Manager Central Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (CEEMEA)
BIK, Agnieszka Szopa-Maziukiewicz Vice President and CEO of Digital Fingerprints
Cashless Poland Foundation, Joanna Erdman President of the Board
Civitta Poland, Agnieszka Matłoka Associate Partner Sustainability
Clinmark, Marta Rzeszotarska Executive Vice President
Compensa TU S.A. Vienna Insurance Group, Anna Włodarczyk-Moczkowska President
ERBUD, Agnieszka Głowacka Vice President
KUKE, Katarzyna Kowalska Deputy CEO & CRO
Lenovo Polska, Ewelina Woldan Communication Manager
Neo-Świat, Jolanta Augustyniak-Praczyk Project Director and Justyna Roman Project Director
Raben Logistics Polska, Jolanta Sawińska Regional Director
Szczęśliwa Strona Życia, Kamila Śniegoska Therapist and Founder
Szkoła Numer Jeden, Benjamin Franklin School, Edyta Frejek Founder
The Concept, Monika Woźniak-Zawioła Partner | CEO.Poland
Top Woman in Real Estate, Krystyna Swojak Managing Director
Unum Życie, Aneta Podyma CEO
