November 5, 2026 - Women's Journal

Six Events In, High Vibe Women Is Selling Out Faster

Women's Journal Staff on November 5, 2026

On October 22, more than 220 women filled Liuna Station in Hamilton, Ontario, for the sixth full-day experience High Vibe Women has produced. Like the five before it, it drew a larger crowd than the one before.

Three days after tickets opened for the next one, more than 85 had sold. That event is still five months away.

The Rooms Two Founders Could Not Find

Kristina Bartold and Maria Tassi started The Social Snippet, a marketing and podcast agency, in 2021. As they scaled it, they leaned on other women running businesses, and they kept noticing how few places there were in Canada to find them. By Bartold’s account, the country has far fewer dedicated communities and in-person events for women entrepreneurs than the United States does. High Vibe Women began as the room the two of them wanted and could not book.

“We were going to the US and sitting next to other Canadians who lived half an hour away from us, also searching for a community of business owners to help move their businesses forward,” Bartold says. “The Social Snippet had a ton of momentum, but nothing like the outpouring of support we’ve received from other Canadian women looking to grow their businesses.”

The response has come faster each time out. More than 100 tickets for the October event sold within two weeks of launch, and the day was past half full with six months still to go. The March launch beat even that pace. Bartold has watched the acceleration build across all six events.

What a Full Day Actually Looks Like

The format runs on speakers, a vendor market, and hands-on activations. The October lineup included Raia “Coach” Carey, personal branding strategist Katrina Owens, Gazzy Amin of Sales Beyond Script, and marketing coach Jenna Harding. The full-day gatherings happen twice a year, and previous ones have sold out.

Attendees still put the people ahead of the programming. Some call the day their annual Super Bowl and plan around the date months out. What they describe wanting is the thing the founders went looking for in the first place: a room of other women running businesses, working on the same problems.

The organizers treat repeat attendance as the real signal. A launch can fill a room once. Guests who come back across six events are responding to something sturdier, and the phrase the community uses for it is community over competition.

A North American Room, Hosted in Canada

High Vibe Women is Canadian. The guest list is not. American founders travel north for the day, and each gathering draws women from across the continent.

For Canadian attendees, that widens a network which might otherwise stop at the provincial border. For American attendees, it adds a Canadian market and a Canadian peer group to one built at home. The community’s events run from intimate dinners up to the full-day format, and this November it adds a four-night retreat in the Dominican Republic.

The Brands That Backed the Day

High Vibe Women produced the October event with support from Adobe Acrobat, Dubsado, the Scotiabank Women’s Initiative, BDC, and additional partners. The list reads as a map of what a room of small business owners actually needs: software, back-office systems, and access to capital.

The organizers have been explicit that they want the day to go beyond traditional networking, with the structure built so conversations lead toward collaborations and partnerships rather than ending at the door.

What the March Numbers Suggest

The March 25, 2027 event is moving faster than October did, with five months still to run. That gives the organizers a longer runway than usual to book speakers and size the venue.

The organizers describe demand for women’s business communities in Canada as rising, and they point to six events of steadily larger rooms as the evidence. What began as the gathering two founders wished existed now sells out months ahead of the date.

The Partnership Behind High Vibe Women

Bartold and Tassi’s agency, The Social Snippet, now supports more than 75 entrepreneurs a month. The work across the agency and High Vibe Women is the same thing in different forms: helping entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their communities online through social media, podcasting, and live events.

The partnership began in 2020. Bartold’s coaching business was gaining ground online, and Tassi, who had spent years looking for work that matched her own interest in connection and purpose, was running the social strategy behind it. A friend handed them a set of clients, and the agency followed. Bartold now splits her weeks between the Community podcast, coaching business owners on growth, and hosting the gatherings, which keeps her in conversation with the same women who fill the room twice a year.

Details on the March 2027 event are available on the High Vibe Women website, and daily updates, recaps, and speaker announcements are posted on the High Vibe Women Instagram page.

Women Hold 30.5% of Management Roles Worldwide, International Labour Organization Finds

Womens Journal Staff 2 on November 5, 2026

Women held 30.5% of management positions worldwide in 2025, according to a report released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on November 3, 2026. The report, Women in Business and Management: Scaling Success, examines women’s representation in business leadership, progress in executive roles and workplace conditions affecting career advancement. Although women have gained representation in senior positions, the findings identify persistent management gaps and declining implementation of workplace equality initiatives.

Key Takeaways

Women held 30.5% of management positions worldwide in 2025, according to ILO estimates
Women’s share of management roles increased from approximately 24.5% in 2000
The ILO’s 2025 enterprise survey included 11,957 businesses across 99 countries
Women’s representation improved in senior and executive leadership, while gender balance declined in junior and middle management
The average implementation rate of gender equality and diversity initiatives among surveyed enterprises declined from 37.4% in 2018 to 26.5% in 2025
Unequal caregiving responsibilities and structural workplace barriers continue to affect women’s professional advancement

ILO Report Finds Women Hold 30.5% of Management Positions

Women account for fewer than one-third of management positions worldwide, according to the ILO’s latest findings. The 30.5% figure reflects global labor market estimates for 2025 and highlights the difference between women’s participation in employment and their representation in organizational leadership.

Women represented approximately 40% of global employment in 2025 but held a smaller share of managerial positions. This difference shows that participation in the workforce has not translated into equivalent representation in management.

The report combines global labor market estimates with enterprise surveys conducted in 2013, 2018 and 2025. Its latest survey included 11,957 enterprises across 99 countries, providing additional information about corporate leadership, workplace policies and gender equality initiatives.

The global management figure comes from ILO labor market estimates rather than directly from the enterprise survey. The survey provides separate evidence about how participating businesses approach leadership representation and workplace equality.

Women’s Representation in Management Shows Gradual Growth

Women’s share of management positions increased from approximately 24.5% in 2000 to 30.5% in 2025. Despite this increase, women continue to hold a minority of management roles globally.

The ILO’s findings also distinguish progress in senior leadership from representation at other management levels. Between 2013 and 2025, gender balance improved in senior and top management but declined in junior and middle management among surveyed enterprises.

This difference raises questions about how women gain access to management responsibilities and advance through organizations. Lower representation in junior and middle management may affect the number of women available for future senior leadership appointments.

Educational attainment is another factor considered in the report. Although women have made substantial gains in higher education, those improvements have not produced equal representation across business leadership positions.

Separate research examining women’s workplace advancement opportunities identified similar concerns about professional progression. A study by Utah State University’s Utah Women and Leadership Project, based on responses from more than 5,200 Utah residents, found that highly educated women continued to report fewer advancement opportunities than men.

While the Utah research focuses on workplace perceptions rather than global management statistics, it provides additional context for understanding why educational qualifications do not necessarily correspond with equal career opportunities.

Women Gain Representation in Senior Corporate Leadership

The ILO report identifies improvements in women’s representation at the highest levels of corporate leadership.

Among surveyed enterprises, the share with a woman serving as board chair increased from 13.1% in 2013 to 30.9% in 2025. The proportion reporting a woman CEO also rose from 23.4% to 28.2% over the same period.

These figures indicate progress in executive representation, although they measure leadership positions within participating enterprises rather than the proportion of all executive jobs held by women worldwide.

The report also examines the business outcomes associated with gender equality and diversity initiatives. Approximately 68.5% of enterprises surveyed in 2025 reported that these initiatives had improved business outcomes.

The reported benefits included improvements in talent attraction, employee retention, engagement and productivity. These are enterprise-reported outcomes and should not be interpreted as guaranteed results from implementing similar initiatives.

Despite improvements in executive representation, the ILO found that women’s participation remains uneven across management levels. The report emphasizes the importance of developing leadership opportunities throughout organizations rather than focusing exclusively on senior appointments.

Workplace Support Measures Face Declining Implementation

The ILO’s findings identify a difference between businesses adopting gender equality policies and putting workplace support measures into practice.

In 2025, 74.8% of surveyed enterprises reported having a gender equality and diversity policy or equivalent measure. However, the average share implementing the initiatives examined in the report declined from 37.4% in 2018 to 26.5% in 2025.

The decline included workplace measures that participating businesses identified as effective, such as maternity leave support programs and equal pay initiatives.

Maternity-related support can affect women’s ability to remain employed and pursue professional advancement while managing family responsibilities. Equal pay policies and measures addressing workplace harassment also form part of the employment conditions examined by the ILO.

The findings distinguish formal workplace commitments from their implementation. A company may establish policies supporting gender equality without consistently applying the measures needed to make those policies effective.

The report therefore emphasizes the importance of evaluating how workplace initiatives operate in practice, including whether employees can access the support provided under company policies.

For employers, these findings identify an area for reviewing existing policies, assessing implementation and examining whether workplace arrangements support continued career development.

ILO Identifies Barriers to Women’s Career Advancement

The ILO identifies structural barriers, occupational segregation and unequal caregiving responsibilities as continuing challenges to women’s representation in management.

These factors can affect career opportunities beyond individual qualifications or professional experience. Responsibilities outside paid employment, particularly unpaid caregiving, may influence access to management roles when workplace arrangements do not accommodate employees’ needs.

Workplace attitudes can also shape professional experiences. A separate Lean In survey examining gender bias in workplaces found associations between gender-related comments heard at work and women’s reports of biased leadership feedback.

The Lean In findings do not establish that those comments directly caused discrimination or specific career outcomes. However, they provide additional information about the workplace experiences that may accompany unequal professional opportunities.

The ILO recommends strengthening women’s leadership development, improving access to business functions where women remain underrepresented and using measurable indicators to assess progress.

Its recommendations also include voluntary leadership targets and clearer organizational accountability for gender equality initiatives.

Beyond individual workplaces, the report calls for attention to unequal caregiving responsibilities, occupational segregation and social expectations that can limit women’s professional opportunities.

The findings indicate that improving women’s representation in management requires attention to both leadership opportunities within organizations and the broader conditions affecting career advancement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of management positions worldwide are held by women?

Women held 30.5% of management positions worldwide in 2025, according to estimates reported by the International Labour Organization.

What is the ILO report on women in management?

The report, Women in Business and Management: Scaling Success, was released on November 3, 2026. It examines women’s representation in business leadership, gender equality initiatives and workplace conditions affecting professional advancement.

How many countries were included in the ILO research?

The ILO’s 2025 enterprise survey included 11,957 businesses across 99 countries. The report also draws on earlier enterprise surveys and global labor market data.

Has women’s representation in management improved?

Yes. Women’s share of management positions increased from approximately 24.5% in 2000 to 30.5% in 2025. However, women continue to hold fewer than one-third of managerial positions globally.

What workplace barriers affect women’s advancement into management?

The ILO identifies unequal caregiving responsibilities, occupational segregation, structural workplace barriers and inconsistent implementation of gender equality measures as factors affecting career advancement.

What does the ILO recommend to improve women’s representation in leadership?

The organization recommends strengthening leadership development, improving access to management opportunities, introducing measurable gender equality targets and addressing structural barriers within and outside the workplace.