One question keeps surfacing in supply chain leadership circles: “How do we have so many women in supply chain, but so few in leadership?”

It’s a fair question. Look at the numbers and you’d think we’d reached something close to gender balance. We haven’t.

The uncomfortable truth is that women are everywhere in supply chain in planning, procurement, customer operations, programme management. And yet they’re largely absent from the top.

Most leaders don’t see this, because when they look around, they do see women. What they’re not seeing is the ceiling those women are hitting.

Women now make up around 40% of the global supply chain workforce, but only 11% of Chief Supply Chain Officers are women.

That gap became the driving force behind my recent article, ‘Women in Supply Chain Leadership: Bridging the Representation Gap’, published in ‘Journal of Supply Chain Management, Logistics and Procurement’, which explores why progress has stalled, what continues to hold women back at senior level, and what organisations can realistically do to change it.

But more than anything, I wanted the article to start a more honest conversation.

Because in an area already struggling for leadership talent, I genuinely believe the supply chain function cannot afford to keep underutilising half the available leadership pool.

The problem isn’t at the starting line – it’s further up the ladder

One of the things I’ve observed repeatedly during my time working in executive search and leadership advisory is the perception gap that exists inside many organisations.

Senior leaders often genuinely believe there isn’t a problem because women are visible across the function. But visibility at workforce level is not the same as representation at leadership level.

In the original draft of the article, I described it as leaders seeing “the entry point, not the leadership cliff.”

And the data backs that up.

Representation steadily falls at every stage of progression: first-line management, director level, vice president level, and then sharply at executive level. By the time organisations reach CSCO level, female representation drops dramatically.

For me this is a leadership pipeline issue rather than solely about diversity.

Supply chain leaders today are being asked to navigate geopolitical disruption, inflation, AI transformation, sustainability pressures, talent shortages, and operational resilience challenges all at the same time. Businesses need broader thinking, stronger succession pipelines, and more diverse leadership perspectives than ever before.

The biggest barriers are often the quiet ones

One of the strongest themes running through the article is that the barriers women face in supply chain leadership are rarely obvious or deliberate.

In many cases, they’re subtle. Incremental. Even well-intentioned.

A stretch role not offered because someone assumes a working parent “already has enough on their plate.” An international assignment redirected elsewhere. A leadership opportunity given to the person who feels most visible or familiar in the room.

In the article, I describe this as “protective exclusion.”

Nobody explicitly says no, but over time, those small decisions compound.

I’ve seen this particularly during the mid-career years, where many professionals are balancing increasing operational responsibility alongside family life. And supply chain’s traditional structures – shift patterns, constant availability, travel expectations, operational presenteeism – can unintentionally make progression harder to sustain.

Importantly, I also don’t believe this culture only affects women.

I’ve spoken to many men who still feel uncomfortable taking extended parental leave or using flexibility openly because of the perceived impact on their careers. That creates a system where traditional expectations stay locked in place for everyone.

This is about performance, not politics

One thing I felt strongly about when writing the article was avoiding corporate jargon and keeping the conversation grounded in business reality.

Supply chain has spent the last few years operating in near-constant disruption mode. Organisations are asking leaders to make faster decisions, lead through ambiguity, manage transformation programmes, and navigate competing pressures simultaneously.

In environments like that, diversity of thought matters.

I strongly believe leadership diversity should not be treated as separate from operational performance. The organisations with broader perspectives, more balanced leadership teams, and stronger talent pipelines are often better equipped to deal with complexity and change.

Or put more simply: if businesses are serious about solving their leadership challenges, they cannot keep narrowing the pool they recruit leadership from.

The organisations getting this right are treating it like a business issue

The article also explores where progress is happening.

Consumer-facing sectors, procurement functions, and organisations with deliberate sponsorship and leadership development programmes are seeing stronger representation than more traditional industrial sectors.

And there’s a consistent theme behind those success stories.

The organisations making progress are not relying on good intentions alone. They’re treating leadership diversity like any other strategic business priority; measured, visible, accountable, and embedded into leadership behaviour.

That includes things like:

• tying representation goals to leadership scorecards
• creating structured sponsorship programmes
• redesigning rigid role requirements
• building flexibility into operational leadership roles
• improving progression transparency
• broadening hiring criteria beyond narrow industry backgrounds

None of this is particularly revolutionary, but it does require commitment.

The real question for supply chain leaders

At its core, this article is not asking for special treatment or lower standards.

It’s asking whether our profession is structurally designed to recognise and retain the broadest possible leadership capability available to it.

Because right now, the data suggests it isn’t.

Writing this piece gave me the opportunity to step back and look at the statistics, lived experiences, organisational patterns, and cultural behaviours that continue shaping leadership progression across supply chain.

And perhaps the biggest takeaway for me is this: supply chain doesn’t have a shortage of capable women – it still has too many systems that make it harder for them to reach the top.

Read the full journal article here where I explore these themes in more depth.

This is a conversation I’m passionate about, and one I know many leaders across procurement, supply chain, and operations are continuing to navigate within their own organisations.

If you’re seeing positive progress, facing challenges around leadership pipelines and retention, or simply have your own perspective to share, please get in touch with me to continue the conversation.