Austria ranks among the worst performers in the European Union when it comes to women in senior business roles, according to a new survey by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Only a relatively small share of Austrian firms have either a significant proportion of women in top management or majority female ownership, placing the country fourth from the bottom in the EU.
The EIB’s annual Investment Survey looks at companies across the EU, the United States and the United Kingdom, and tracks the presence of women in senior positions using two criteria: firms where at least 40 percent of senior managers are women, and firms where women own at least half of the company. On both measures, Austria trails most of its European peers.
Across the EU as a whole, the report finds that women remain underrepresented in top corporate roles and that European firms already lag behind their US counterparts in terms of female leadership. Austria, in turn, sits in the lower tier of an already underperforming group.
The picture is not uniform across sectors. EU-wide, services firms tend to have more gender-balanced management teams than companies in manufacturing or construction. The same pattern can be seen in Austria, where women are more likely to hold senior roles in services, retail, tourism and some professional industries than in heavy industry or construction. But even in these more balanced sectors, Austria does not catch up with the leading countries.
The survey also highlights an important link between leadership diversity and corporate transformation. Firms with more women in senior positions are more likely to invest in innovation, adopt new technologies and pursue climate-related investments. In many countries, this “diversity dividend” is visible in faster digitalisation and more ambitious green strategies among gender-balanced firms.
That makes Austria’s position particularly striking. The country appears as a front-runner elsewhere in the report when it comes to advanced digital technologies and climate-related investment, yet it still lags badly on gender equality at the top of companies. While Austrian firms are quick to invest in new tools and infrastructure, their leadership structures remain comparatively traditional.
Labour market figures show that Austrian women participate in the workforce at high rates, and female education levels are broadly in line with or above EU averages. The EIB findings suggest, however, that this talent is not translating into proportional representation in C-suites and ownership structures.
The report points to several structural factors behind the EU-wide gap: persistent gender stereotypes, uneven access to networks and capital, and family policies that still push women into part-time work or career breaks. In Austria, where part-time employment among women is particularly widespread, those mechanisms may be especially strong.
For policymakers, the ranking is likely to fuel debate about quotas, incentives and corporate governance rules. While some EU countries have introduced binding gender quotas for supervisory boards or listed companies, Austria has so far relied more on voluntary measures and soft pressure. The EIB numbers will add to calls to rethink that approach.
For businesses, the survey is a warning that Austria risks underusing half of its potential leadership pool exactly at a time when firms are being asked to navigate digital disruption, climate transition and a tight labour market. With other countries moving faster on gender equality in top roles, the competitiveness gap could widen.
