The medical device industry’s efforts to achieve gender parity in top leadership have stalled.
MedTech Color co-founder Nada Hanafi [Photo courtesy of MedTech Color]
“Studies show that when women are in leadership roles, companies benefit from more diverse perspectives, fostering innovation and more effective decision-making,” said Lisa Jacobs, co-founder of Stripes and president of North America for eCential Robotics.
The number of women in top executive roles (in our analysis, those listed on corporate leadership web pages) rose just 1 percentage point to 21% in 2021, but then climbed another 2 percentage points to 23% in 2022 and increased to 23.6% in 2023.
However, as the spotlight on diversity has dimmed, so apparently have the efforts to push for more inclusion in the top leadership ranks, particularly for women. Women now hold 24.4% of all leadership positions at the largest medical device companies in the world.
The average composition within each medtech company increased to 23.9% from 23.1% last year. Composition refers to the number of women in leadership roles as a share of the total number of top executives within a company. The rise in average composition means companies are slowly creating more gender-diverse executive teams.
These modest improvements from the previous year underscore the persistent gender gap in executive medtech roles. These leaders shape the direction and decision-making of companies responsible for saving and improving patient lives, so it’s crucial to diversify the executive ranks to be more representative of the patient population, according to Nada Hanafi, co-founder of MedTech Color, a nonprofit organization that aims to advance the representation of underrepresented ethnic minority groups.
“It’s not reflective of the patients we’re serving, and that’s why women’s health and focus is so behind,” Hanafi told Medical Design & Outsourcing. “There’s an opportunity to do much better here. … Challenge the industry. If you’re not intentional about who you’re hiring, you’re not leading or leaning into wanting better health outcomes.”
The data for 2024 shows that despite years of pledges to improve, women continue to be underrepresented in executive positions across top medtech firms. Last year, the industry lost its most powerful leader with the resignation of former J&J MedTech Worldwide Chair Ashley McEvoy, who was succeeded by Tim Schmid.
“Industries that understand their customer base outperform the S&P. We have blind spots. We need to pay attention to who is making the buying decisions — often it’s women,” McEvoy said at the MedExec Women conference in April. “Let’s look at our patient population and ask: What can medtech do to better represent the patient population within our companies, and on our boards? … It’s not equitable yet. Smart companies are sticking by diversity, equity and inclusion until we get equity. Public companies have to perform. We need a talent base that reflects our customer or patient base.”
The state of women in medtech leadership
Our analysis uses job titles from corporate website leadership pages. We excluded 22 of the companies on the Medtech Big 100 (our ranking of the world’s largest medical device businesses) from this analysis because they did not list executives on their websites or provide information to determine gender, such as pronouns or executive portraits.
In 2024, women held just 24.4% of executive positions across 78 of the largest medical device companies, with 217 women among 889 executives. This figure is a slight increase from previous years but far from parity.
On average, medtech companies had three women in leadership roles, but there are stark differences between companies. Leading the pack, Ambu has achieved 50% female leadership, and Getinge (44.4%) and Insulet (42.9%) are also close to achieving parity in leadership.
In 2024, three companies — Demant, Medacta, and Alphatec — reported no women in top leadership roles. This is an improvement from the seven companies with no female executives in top roles in 2023 and 14 in 2022.
Britt Meelby Jensen at Ambu, Suzanne Winter at Accuray, Ashley Cordova at Novocure, Anna Maria Braun at B. Braun Melsungen, An Steegen at Barco, Britta Fünfstück at Paul Hartmann, and Helen Giza at Fresenius Medical Care are among the few women leading top medtech companies.
The overall list of women medtech CEOs remains relatively unchanged from the year prior, aside from Cordova becoming CEO of Novocure this year and former GN Hearing CEO Gitte Pugholm Aabo stepping down.
Just under 9% of companies in our analysis have women CEOs, indicating that the medtech industry isn’t much different from overall corporate America. According to Fortune, 10.4% of CEOs on the 2024 Fortune 500 list are women, unchanged from 2023.
How to improve diversity in medtech
There are medtech organizations and networking groups that aim to strengthen the presence of women leaders. MedtechWomen wants to advance the representation of underrepresented ethnic minority groups in the industry. MedTech Color boosts representation in the medtech industry. MedExecWomen also empowers women to improve gender parity in medtech leadership. Stripes is a networking group that empowers women to take on leadership roles.
Stripes co-founder Lisa Jacobs is also the president of eCential Robotics North America. [Photo courtesy of Lisa Jacobs]
McEvoy, who now sits on the board at Proctor & Gamble, said change can start with a single individual.
"We can each contribute to increasing diversity by thinking about whether we are perpetuating biases through our choices and even the words we use,” she said. “More of us need to recognize and advocate for a diverse team. Be self-aware, then change how you behave. When you are in a position of power, challenge biases and model what it takes to ensure a merit-based approach to growth."
Read more: MDO interviews Abbott Medical Devices Group President Lisa Earnhardt for Women in Medtech
— Managing Editor Jim Hammerand contributed to this report.
