--- 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: 2026-10-08T08:21:54.050Z 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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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=1210e626-183e-4d60-9b7f-1fc655b55097&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in U.S. Leadership Roles [Watch (HLS stream): Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in U.S. Leadership Roles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ro3v6vCe.m3u8) (0:46)  _Published 2017-03-23. Although some gains have been made over the years, women remain woefully underrepresented in leadership roles across the United States_ 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 in leadership roles across the United States 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\. ## Transcript [00:35] [ MUSIC ] ```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":"2026-10-08T08:21:54.050Z","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":"https://time.com/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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Women Are Still Terribly Underrepresented in U.S. Leadership Roles","description":"Although some gains have been made over the years, women remain woefully underrepresented in leadership roles across the United States","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ro3v6vCe/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-23T21:19:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ro3v6vCe.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/","duration":"PT46S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4711005/women-underrepresented-business-political-leadership-roles/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```