A Decade of Executiva: Elevating Women’s Leadership in Portugal

Leaders League: Executiva is celebrating its 10th anniversary.  What was your motivation for starting the initiative?

Isabel Canha: As journalists, we have observed that women were strongly underrepresented in leadership positions in corporations. Back then, as editors of business magazines we had mostly listened to and reported on stories of men, since they still made up the majority at the forefront of most fields. Yet we knew women with truly inspiring stories to share. We felt that their voices could encourage other women to reach their full potential, to take risks, and to break barriers.

On the other hand, supranational institutions, states, companies and other organizations, and individuals were becoming increasingly aware of the issue of gender equality. What was missing was a media outlet that would bring women out of obscurity, to serve as role models for other women, inspiring them who aspire to grow and claim the leadership positions they rightfully deserve. So, in 2015, we took an entrepreneurial step and founded Executiva, a website dedicated to giving professional women a voice.

Girls and young women cannot aspire to be what they don’t know exists.

Executiva's mission is to provide women with tools to develop their career and role models so that they can achieve the leadership positions they aspire to and deserve, highlighting the role of women in the economy and society. We fulfill this mission through the articles and interviews we publish on the website, conferences, books (9 books on leadership and career authored and published), awards (such as Portugal's Most Influential Women and Executive Women of the Year), and training initiatives (such as Executiva Bootcamps or the One Step Ahead - Female Leaders program, promoted in partnership with AESE Business School).

Girls and young women cannot aspire to be what they don’t know that exists. So, we give them a lot of role models to inspire them, give them the energy and the resilience they need to keep on.

What developments have you seen in female leadership in the last 10 years since the start of Executiva?

Maria Serina: Portugal has made progress in reducing gender inequalities, although challenges remain, particularly in areas such as female representation in leadership positions and pay equality.

In 2025, in Portugal, women account for 42% of employees in companies and 59% of the active population with higher education. But only 30% of management positions in companies are held by women, while in leadership positions this percentage drops to 27%. The data comes from the 15th edition of Informa D&B’s study, “Female Presence in Companies in Portugal”, and shows that, across the business sector, gender parity in management and leadership has seen almost no progress in recent years, as the participation of women in these positions has increased by only 1 percentage point since 2017.

Portugal currently ranks 34th in the Global Gender Gap Index (2025), with a score of 0.767, among 148 countries, down from 17th in 2024.This index, published annually by the World Economic Forum, assesses gender equality across four main areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

What sectors or industries to you focus on?

Isabel Canha: We aim at every sector and industry where women are excelling. But we have some initiatives that focus more specifically at areas where women are struggling to develop their career, such as STEM and female entrepreneurship, or need to be empowered and take more attention to, such as their personal finances.

Events like The Great Women Leadership Conference, with 14 editions in Lisbon and Porto, gather women from all industries: CEO and other  C-Level executives, managing directors and managers from baking and insurance companies, consulting, industry, and so on.

What are your goals for the next 10 years?

Maria Serina: Women represent half of humanity, yet discrimination persists — in different forms and to varying degrees depending on each woman’s circumstances. Parity could be as much as 123 years away, according to a World Economic Forum report. In Portugal, the situation is not as extreme as in other parts of the world, where women still face gross violations of their human rights. Encouragingly, companies with strong gender equality practices are crucial in helping women break through the glass ceiling. Still, despite the progress made over recent decades, there is a long road ahead. Across business and the economy, in politics and society, in science and the arts, prejudice and bias endure.

In 2025, in Portugal, women account for 42% of employees in companies and 59% of the active population with higher education.

In this context, we envision that Executiva will still be necessary and relevant 10 years from now. We’ll continue to work to develop our mission of helping women thrive and achieve more leadership positions, so that they can help to change the world.

In our view, a society in which half of the population is discriminated against, not equally represented in political bodies or in the decision-making organs of companies and other organizations, is an unjust society. It is also a society that loses part of its talent, its workforce, its initiative, and its perspective on the world. In companies, various studies show that this leads to lower performance on multiple levels, from profits to the company’s stock market valuation.