IRELAND has become one of only two European Union (EU) states to have no women leading any of its listed companies, in a setback for a country that has become known for achieving rapid social change in recent decades.

Since Margaret Sweeney retired on Tuesday as chief executive officer (CEO) of Ireland’s biggest private residential landlord Irish Residential Properties REIT Plc, all 31 companies listed on Euronext Dublin’s website are to be headed by a man.

Overall, the picture isn’t much brighter across the EU for women in leadership positions with it being common for even large stock exchanges to have less than a handful of female CEOs.

However, Ireland, with a population of five million, will be an outlier when Eddie Byrne succeeds Sweeney as CEO.

Almost every other EU country, except the small state of Luxembourg, has at least one woman at the top of a listed company, according to analysis by Bloomberg.

All other member states have female CEOs, besides Slovakia, which has one company, Biotika AS, run by three directors including a woman, and Philip Morris’s Czech out posting, led by a female managing director who is set to be replaced by a man in June, according to a company statement.

Only 8% of CEO positions at the largest listed companies in the EU28 in 2023 were women, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality.

It’s a bleak insight into the state of gender equality in corporate Europe, and now especially in Ireland, which has become a poster child for progressing in a short stint of time.

Even in similarly-sized Scandinavian countries women are scarce in top roles, despite their progressive reputations.

Sweden’s main OMX Stockholm 30 index was earlier this year left with only one female CEO among 30 after a series of resignations among women in top roles, including fast-fashion giant H&M AB’s Helena Helmersson and phone carrier Telia AB’s Alison Kirkby.

Both were replaced by men.

The lack of gender equality at the top of companies listed on Ireland’s exchange is exacerbated by the fact it is dominated by traditionally male-heavy industries like construction

 - Bloomberg