The ecological transition is decided today: in executive committees, budgets and projects that will transform industry, energy and employment. But if half of the talent does not reach the positions where one commands, sustainability is left without speed, without innovation and without legitimacy. Female leadership is not a gesture: it is a condition of governance.
Sustainability is not a label. It is a way of deciding. It is decided when a company allocates investment to decarbonization instead of postponing it. When it reviews its supply chain to reduce environmental and labor impact. When it measures climate and social risks as part of the business, not as an annex.
Therefore, talking about female leadership is not opening an “equality chapter” separate from climate or competitiveness. It is talking about governance: about who is in the room when the decision is made that then turns into emissions, employment, innovation and resilience.
The weight of women in the company
In Spain we have advanced in presence, but we continue to fail in real power. The CNMV shows it clearly: in 2024 women represent 41.27% of the boards of the IBEX 35, but only 7.40% of executive board members and 26.31% of senior management (excluding female board members). Simply put: we are close to parity in the board photo, but far from parity where budgets are approved, teams are led, and strategy is executed. (CNMV, 2024).
Sustainability demands execution. It demands speed. And it demands legitimacy. If strategic decision-making is not nourished by all talent, the quality of the diagnosis is reduced and the solution is impoverished. Not because there is a “sustainable gene”, but because complex challenges -climate, energy, water, biodiversity, inequality- need diversity of experience, priorities, and knowledge.
The most revealing mirror is the green economy. According to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, between 2019 and 2023 women are only one in every seven people employed in the green economy; and in 2023 they barely represent 11.5% of green entrepreneurship and 15.1% of salaried employment in these activities. (MITECO, 2025). If we want a profound transition, how are we going to allow ourselves to leave out half of the entrepreneurial and professional talent precisely in the sectors that will define the productive future?
What the data really say
Official indicators confirm that the ceiling is still present. In 2024, the INE places at 34.42% the proportion of women in management positions and at 35.15% the proportion of women in senior management. In the European Union, Eurostat speaks of 35.2% of women in management positions in 2024. We are advancing, yes, but too slowly for an agenda that demands transforming energy and industrial models in a few years.
Furthermore, global climate governance reminds us that this is not a domestic debate. Within the framework UNFCCC, only 7 out of 17 technical bodies have achieved the balance objective, and the average female representation stands at 40%. If the climate decision-making table is not fully inclusive, the risk is not only ethical: it is strategic.
BIOGRAPHY
Gricell Garrido (president of the Spanish Association of Businesswomen)
She has over 35 years of experience in the electronic security sector, with a career that began in the senior management of an American multinational and continued as founder and CEO of Prevent Security Systems for the last 23 years. Throughout her career, she has developed a solid business vision based on innovation, leadership, and commitment to the business fabric, especially defending the value of associativism as a key tool to drive solutions to social and business challenges.
She currently plays an active role in various business institutions: she is vice-president of CEIM, president of CEIM's Security Commission, vice-president of FIDE (Ibero-American Federation of Businesswomen) and a member of the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, she is president of the Spanish Association of Businesswomen (ASEME), the oldest association of businesswomen in Spain, with over 50 years of history, from where she works to promote female leadership, foster equal opportunities in the business sphere, and strengthen the network of businesswomen and entrepreneurs.
Sustainability is not led in masculine
Sustainability also cannot be understood solely in environmental or economic terms. It is also a matter of peace and social stability. The United Nations has studied for years the impact of women's participation in peace processes and the results are conclusive: when women participate in negotiations, agreements are 35% more likely to last at least fifteen years.
It's no coincidence. Female presence broadens the focus of negotiations, introduces social and cohesion variables that often remain outside traditional agreements and contributes to building more lasting solutions. And academic works suggest that, when that participation is “with voice and influence,” it correlates with better content and implementation. This does not allow attributing simple causality, but it does compel a practical conclusion: including women improves the resilience of the social fabric and the sustainability of agreements.
Therefore, in ASEME we advocate for a paradigm shift: moving from symbolic presence to real influence. And doing so with concrete commitments. First, measurable objectives for there to be more women in executive positions -not only in supervisory bodies-, with transparency and accountability. Second, open the green economy to women with financing, responsible procurement, training, and networks: if the transition is made without women, it will be slower and less innovative. Third, measure what matters: linking environmental and social indicators to management evaluation, so that sustainability stops depending on voluntarism.
Sustainability is not led in masculine. It is led with all available talent, in business, in the public sphere, and also in peace. Because when half of the talent does not decide, the future is delayed. And the future -economic, social, and environmental- cannot wait.
Gricell Garrido
President
ASEME – Spanish Association of Businesswomen