Women who are thriving aren’t doing it because the world has suddenly become easier. They’re doing it because they’ve developed a way of leading that fits the reality they’re operating in. There is a shift away from technical competence alone. Leadership now requires adaptability, decisiveness, and an ability to mobilise people through uncertainty.
Two years after Redgrave’s first study on the evolving role of women in leadership across infrastructure, energy and industrials, the conversation continues. Progress is much less about representation alone and more about the how we create the conditions that enable leaders to thrive and accelerate progress.
I sat down with senior leaders across the sector to discuss the reality of the job – progress, setbacks, and the capabilities required for the future.
Karin Meurk-Harvey
Non-Executive Director, Rotork plc
Susan Evans
Engineering Sector Director, Amey
What is the current state of women in leadership across Infrastructure, Energy and Industrials?
Progress doesn’t come from numbers alone, but they do show us where momentum is building and where it is slipping. And right now, the picture is mixed.
In water, female CEO representation has fallen from six to three. While the scope of the role remains broad, the capabilities being most heavily prioritised have shifted.
Earlier AMP cycles placed greater emphasis on strategy, stakeholder management and regulatory leadership. In the current regulatory period, expectations have moved more sharply towards asset resilience, engineering credibility and capital delivery.
As these capability definitions narrow, the leadership pipeline has also narrowed, raising questions about how readiness is being assessed, and whether succession systems are evolving quickly enough to support diverse leadership under changing conditions.
Elsewhere, the trajectory looks different.
While overall participation of women in the workforce and leadership remains low across the rail sector, there has been a modest but meaningful rise in senior female appointments, with the appointment of three female TOC Managing Directors and both the COO of Transport for London and Deputy CEO of Network Rail being female.
Across the wider UK energy landscape, the number of CEO-1 leaders is more encouraging, with National Grid leading the way. The company recently appointed Zoë Yujnovich as its first female CEO, joining its already female Chair and several senior women in key leadership positions. This was followed by the most recent appointment of Meg O’Neill as a CEO of BP. According to POWERful Women there are currently a eight female CEO’s across the broader UK Energy sector, with data showing that 73 % of UK energy boards still having no female executive directors at all.
Despite improvements, this volatility indicates that progress is fragile when the systems supporting it aren’t strong enough.
Which leadership traits matter most in 2026 and beyond?
Across our conversations, senior female leaders described 2025 as a year of pressure, pace and complexity. They share their reflections on the leadership strengths they believe will matter most in 2026, for every leader, not just women.
Clarity, courage and sharper decision-making
2025 reinforced three things for me: trust your instinct, stay clear in your decisions, and never underestimate the power of relationships.
My mindset for 2026 is simple: be brave, be selective and stay open. Brave enough to step into opportunities that stretch me; selective about where I invest my time and who I choose to work with; and open to learning fast and building value in new areas.
– Karin Meurk-Harvey
Adaptability, capability and decisive pace
The past year has been defined by large-scale transformations, often in conditions of heightened global complexity. Progress in this environment has depended on leadership teams that can adapt quickly, maintain clarity of purpose, and execute with discipline under pressure.
As operating environments continue to shift, the differentiator is no longer strategy alone, but how effectively leaders respond in real time. Organisations that move forward with confidence are those able to make decisions at pace, build deep leadership and organisational capability, and invest consistently in people who can operate with judgement and resilience through uncertainty.
Resilience, agility and innovation
Looking back over 2025, two things stand out: resilience and agility. You can’t navigate a year like this without understanding your own capacity to endure pressure, nor without being ready to pivot at speed. There’s a reason agility dominates business language right now.
Looking ahead, I’m taking a growth and innovation mindset. We have to keep challenging the status quo, asking what we could do differently, more efficiently, and in ways that increase customer value, engage our people, and keep us competitive.
– Susan Evans
The systematic flaws of progression
While progress continues, senior women still navigate realities their male peers encounter far less often. Two decisions often influence the shape of their careers more than people admit: the partner they choose and the company they join. Both play a huge role in how much support, flexibility and understanding sits around the demands of leadership.
And across global markets, experiences vary wildly, and not always in ways you’d expect.
In the US, shorter parental leave and fewer paid holidays often coincide with higher female representation in senior roles. But that can come with a personal cost: less time at home, faster returns to work and the expectation to perform at full pace almost immediately.
Australia takes a slightly different path. Statutory parental leave is modest, but workplace agreements and union-negotiated “top-ups” often bring parents closer to their usual salary. Meanwhile, Nordic countries have gone further by embedding shared parenting into the system. Generous leave for both parents, and portions ringfenced for fathers, takes the negotiation out of the equation and makes balance far more achievable.
And then there’s the stage of life no one talked about for years: menopause. The fact it now features in senior leadership conversations is progress in itself. But it also highlights that women’s careers stretch across life chapters that organisations have historically overlooked. Supporting leaders through every stage, not just their early rise, will determine whether progress sticks.
None of these factors are about capability. They’re about the environment women are operating in, and how much the system helps or hinders them along the way.
What organisations must do differently
If organisations genuinely want to retain and advance senior women, the environment has to evolve at the same pace as the work itself. It’s not just about how many women are in leadership. It’s about what kind of leaders we are building for the future.
Here are four considerations that have emerged:
01
Build support systems that make a difference
Whether it’s family support, fair parental leave, menopause policies or inclusive workplace culture, retaining female talent depends on more than good intentions.
02
Treat AI as a leadership accelerator
AI is typically front and centre in nearly every conversation today. Forward-thinking executives need to embed AI into talent strategies to close skills gaps faster, personalise development, and build adaptive, future-ready teams at speed.
AI is no longer an innovation topic, it’s an execution discipline. Leaders can’t afford to treat it as optional exploration anymore.
– Karin Meurk-Harvey
03
Modernise career paths for the next generation
Future leaders are simply not wired the same way as previous cohorts. They are motivated by purpose, progression transparency and genuine development. They know when development is real and when it’s lip service. If organisations don’t adjust, they’ll lose strong women (and men) long before they reach senior roles.
04
Make DEI a leadership behaviour
Building diverse leadership teams requires sustained effort, visibility of role models, and a commitment to supporting the whole person, not just the professional persona. When DEI becomes embedded in leadership behaviour, retention improves without the noise.
So what kind of leaders are we building?
The question isn’t whether women can lead. They already are: Leading transformation programmes, steering integrations, stabilising operations and keeping teams moving through uncertainty. The question IS whether businesses are creating the conditions that make this leadership sustainable.
These sectors need leaders who can simplify complexity, communicate with clarity, develop people and adapt at pace. Women are doing this every day; the challenge is ensuring the system supports them well enough for that leadership to endure.
