Women are finally leading global brands. So why is fashion still failing them?

By announcing Berta de Pablos-Barbier as its next CEO, Pandora – the world’s biggest jeweler – has done something that fashion continues to resist: put women in charge.

The appointment feels like a door cracked open in an industry that depends on women at every level but rarely allows them to lead. Now the rest of the industry must decide whether to walk through it or continue profiting from feminist slogans while preserving a boys’ club at the top.

The contradiction is striking. The fashion industry runs on women. Globally, they drive 85 percent of purchases. According to the International Labour Organization, up to 80 percent of garment workers are women. Business of Fashion found that a similar percentage of college majors from top fashion schools are female, and yet women head up just 14 percent of major fashion brands and hold just over one in ten top design jobs.

No doubt, the “glass runway” is real.

Until women lead at scale, the industry risks selling empowerment while practicing exclusion. Its promises of reinvention and sustainability will remain incomplete unless women sit in the boardrooms and sketch in the studios where power is held, and decisions are made.

For years, fashion has positioned itself as a beacon of reinvention. Empowerment messaging and sustainability pledges have become increasingly familiar in brand campaigns and corporate reporting. Stella McCartney’s latest show at Paris Fashion Week was her most ethically conscious offering ever – 98 percent sustainable, 100 percent cruelty-free and including the world’s first plant-based alternative to feathers. Earlier this year, Stuart Weitzman’s 'How Lovely to Be a Woman' campaign celebrated modern womanhood, with the brand donating donate 50,000 US dollars to the maternal health charity Every Mother Counts.

Yet power structures have barely shifted. Beyond the runway curtains, the industry’s gender gap is undermining credibility with consumers who are increasingly sensitive to the chasm between words and action.

Where consumer trust and brand loyalty are built on authenticity, failing to promote women to the top undermines both reputation and competitiveness. Because it’s not only optics – the lack of female leadership carries business risks, too. Research from McKinsey shows that companies with more diverse leadership teams perform better, make more sustainable decisions, and adapt faster to market shocks.

Some companies, however, do understand that change is needed and are starting to demonstrate what it looks like when action matches rhetoric.

Ganni boasts a workforce of nearly 90 percent women. The Danish brand has made gender equality a core part of its corporate identity and has formally committed to the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles.

Sector-wide initiatives like RISE – a collaboration between global apparel companies and nonprofits – are also trying to embed women’s empowerment into core business practices. The program focuses on scaling up impact in global supply chains, with an emphasis on giving women garment workers access to rights, skills and opportunities that translate into greater influence in their workplaces.

Yet change needs to happen as far back as the factory floor. And one example of a garment manufacturer making waves is Youngone Corporation – a well-established, global company with a largely female workforce, which has made worker well-being a central part of its strategy. Instead of treating women simply as a consumer base, they’re investing in them – knowing full well that they keep the industry running.

Its Gender Equality and Returns (GEAR) initiative, is successfully increasing the ratio of female supervisors. Since 2022, more than 240 women have taken part – developing new skills and getting promoted as a result.

In its manufacturing hub of Bangladesh, Youngone has built a hospital, clinics and even a nursing college, not only for its employees but for surrounding communities. Childcare centres and canteens take the strain off working mothers, while a partnership with VisionSpring has brought free eye tests and glasses to staff and their families. Most ambitious of all, Youngone is constructing 150 apartment blocks designed to house up to 40,000 people, complete with schools, healthcare and recreational facilities.

These kinds of investments show that women’s empowerment can be built into the way a company does business.

By contrast, the wider industry often falls back on the argument that women simply need more time in the “pipeline” before reaching senior positions. But Pandora’s decision demonstrates that talent already exists. The challenge is not supply but will. Transparent promotion pipelines, verifiable investment in women leaders, and accountability for boards and investors are the tools that make change possible.

Credibility, in other words, comes from action not slogans.

The stakes are high. Fashion has built much of its global identity around empowerment and sustainability. But if the imbalance in leadership remains unaddressed, these promises risk being dismissed as branding exercises. Brands that fail to match their marketing with practice risk losing more than credibility: they risk losing the women who keep the industry alive as workers, creatives and customers.

Pandora may have cracked the door open. The question now is whether the rest of the industry will follow or whether it will continue to resist, even as the cost of inaction grows.