Women hold no CEO roles at the pharmaceutical companies in the 2026 Global Health 50/50 Report, despite nearly three-quarters of for-profit health organisations having publicly available gender equality policies. The gap between paper commitments and senior leadership is widening in the sector the index covers.

Of 198 organisations assessed globally, 73% of for-profit companies published a gender equality policy, compared with 61% of non-profits. Yet women chair just 14% of for-profit boards and 43% of non-profit boards, according to the think tank's annual review.

What did the 2026 report find?

The 2026 Global Health 50/50 Report, published this month by the Global 50/50 think tank, tracks workplace equality policies at pharmaceutical, food and health consultancy firms alongside non-profits operating in global health.

Women held 38% of CEO roles across the 198 organisations in the index. At current rates of progress, the report estimates gender parity at CEO level will not arrive until 2039.

Non-profits drove most of the recovery from last year's declines. The share of organisations performing at a "high" level or above rose from 38% in 2025 to 45% in 2026. The index measures gender policy, outcomes, and leadership across the organisations in its sample.

How have US DEI rollbacks affected corporate commitments?

For-profit organisations showed a different pattern. Public commitments to gender equality fell from 81% in 2024 to 65% in 2026. Non-profit commitments returned to their 2024 level of 86%.

Global 50/50 attributed the 2025 declines — the first across every measure since the index began in 2017 — to US executive orders calling for companies to dismantle diversity and inclusion programmes. The 2026 data show partial recovery, concentrated in the non-profit sector.

The think tank's review of 45 UK-based companies offers a second cut at the leadership question. Companies led by a female CEO reported smaller median gender pay gaps than those led by men. The finding suggests leadership composition shapes pay outcomes, not just policy adoption.

What did the report's authors say?

Dr Lynsey Robinson, health lead at Global 50/50, framed the gap between policy and leadership as the central failure of the year. "Among the organisations we assess, companies lead on workplace policy, then fall away the moment the questions turn to power and purpose," she said.

"A policy on paper isn't power in practice. Companies have shown they can write the policies. Now they need to share the power."

Professor Sarah Hawkes, Co-CEO of Global 50/50, pointed to the political backdrop. "We're in a landscape without precedent, with gender equality under organised attack," she said.

"Yet some organisations that dropped commitments under that pressure have put them back. Commitments survive when they're defended — by the organisations that make them, and by everyone with the power to hold them to account."

What should HR and policy teams watch next?

The data leave a clear question for people leaders in the sector: will the 2026 recovery in non-profit commitments extend to for-profit firms, where female representation at board and CEO level remains the lowest?

The next Global Health 50/50 report will measure whether the divergence between non-profit and for-profit gender commitments holds, narrows, or accelerates in 2027.