--- title: Women Still Underrepresented as Business, Political Leaders description: Discover how underrepresented women are in leadership roles in politics and Fortune 500 companies. canonical: https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-23T19:12:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:15.543Z og:title: Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in Business and Politics og:description: Women make up just 19.4% of Congress og:url: https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc60e3e803ac75d5f/6988bfb0cd1bbaae247046e2/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5019 og:image:height: 2823 og:image:alt: United States Capitol Building, Washington DC, USA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in Business and Politics twitter:description: Women make up just 19.4% of Congress twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc60e3e803ac75d5f/6988bfb0cd1bbaae247046e2/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in Business and Politics > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Mar 23, 2017 7:12 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Mar 23, 2017 7:12 PM UTC Although some gains have been made over the years, women remain woefully [underrepresented](http://motto.time.com/4653260/women-oscar-nominations-underrepresented/) in leadership roles across the United States. The gap in representation is particularly obvious in the political sphere. Despite making up 51.4% of the U.S. adult population, women constitute only 19.4% of Congress, with 21 women serving in the Senate and 83 in the House of Representatives, according to new data from the [Pew Research Center](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/20/despite-gains-women-remain-underrepresented-among-u-s-political-and-business-leaders/?utm%5Fcontent=buffere9c23&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fcampaign=buffer) examining women’s representation in state and federal government and Fortune 500 companies. This figure puts the U.S. near the middle of the pack compared to other countries. It ranks 100th out of 193 countries in terms of women’s representation in parliaments, according to data compiled by the [Inter-Parliamentary Union](http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm). Only 27 women run Fortune 500 companies, up from last year by six. Though small, gains have certainly been made in this area; in 1995, not one Fortune 500 company had a female CEO. More significant improvement has been made across Fortune 500 company boards, where the share of women increased to 20.2% in 2016, up from 9.6% in 1995\. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/"},"headline":"Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in Business and Politics","datePublished":"2017-03-23T19:12:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:15.543Z","description":"Women make up just 19.4% of Congress","url":"https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/","keywords":["motto","Pew Research Center","Fortune 500"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc60e3e803ac75d5f/6988bfb0cd1bbaae247046e2/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc60e3e803ac75d5f/6988bfb0cd1bbaae247046e2/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"United States Capitol Building, Washington DC, USA","caption":"United States Capitol Building, Washington DC, USA","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/","name":"Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in Business and Politics"}}]}] ```