Botswana Leads in Women in Senior Roles: Grant Thornton Report

• The report by Grant Thornton highlights that there is a strong presence of females in senior roles
• Females hold 35.8% of senior management roles in Botswana
• The report also highlights that there is a need for leadership development for females

The International Business Report (IBR) on Women in Business Report 2026 from Grant Thornton shows that women in senior management positions are well represented, but highlights the need for improved visibility and a more structured approach to leadership development.

The survey results reveal that Botswana has a higher percentage of women (35.8 percent) in senior management compared to the African average (34.4 percent) and the global average (32.9 percent).

According to Sakshi Shukla, Associate Director for Grant Thornton Botswana, although many companies have policies in place to promote gender equality, progress is contingent on consistent application of those policies, as well as upon creating an inclusive and supportive workplace environment.

The report also notes that while Botswana is performing well compared to other countries within Africa, further work is necessary to reduce the number of organisations that do not have any female members of their executive leadership teams and to maintain their current levels of success.

In both Botswana and across the globe, functional senior leadership roles (i.e., Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resource Officer and Chief Marketing Officer) are dominated by females. Information technology remains a major barrier for women in leadership roles.

However, since the passage of laws such as the Data Protection Act there has been much greater attention paid to both data governance and cybersecurity; therefore, there will be opportunities created for more females than ever before to become Chief Technology Officer. Furthermore, according the report;

According to a recent study, 64 percent of businesses in Botswana that are in the middle of their market place significant value on diversity, equity, and inclusion when hiring.

Although this group is less than half the global and African average, the representation of women in senior management roles suggests that there has been structural improvement and there is potential to place more emphasis on and visibility to advancing gender equality.

Currently, 52 percent of mid-market businesses do not have any DE&I programs; however, many businesses are planning to introduce DE&I initiatives by 2023 and 28 percent of businesses who already have DE&I programs are assessing their effectiveness in large part due to the global discourse on inclusivity and the competitive advantages of fostering diverse workforces.

According to Lovita Ramguttee, Resident Representative for UNDP in Botswana, “The evidence is clear that empowering women to lead creates strong and resilient institutions, inclusive economies, and contributes to our society's efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Overall, there is progress within the business community, but 12 percent of businesses that operate in Botswana do not have women in senior management positions compared to 15.5 percent of businesses in Africa and 5.7 percent globally.