More than three quarters of Kenyans support women’s leadership in politics and the corporate sector, with an international survey — the Reykjavik Index for Leadership 2025 —showing commendable progress in perceptions on women’s leadership across board.
Overall, Kenya had a score of 56 points out of 100, an increase from 52 points in the 2024 baseline. The positive change in attitudes is, however, mainly driven by women whose score increased from 54 to 62. Men’s attitudes remained largely unchanged, increasing only slightly from 49% to 50%. The gender gap calls for strong partnership between men and women in changing attitudes about women in leadership.
When asked about their general comfort levels with the idea of a woman as a chief executive officer (CEO) or head of government, 75% of respondents in Kenya said they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ comfortable with having a woman as head of government. A higher percentage of people expressed comfort with a woman being the CEO of a major company in Kenya, with 88% ‘very’ or ‘fairly comfortable’.
According to the researchers, this aligns with the reality of women’s leadership in politics and business in Kenya. “Even if women have made significant gains politically, with Kenya ranking in place 100 globally for women’s political participation and women holding 23.3% of seats in the lower house of parliament, Kenya’s Constitution states that at least one third of elected bodies should be made up of women. In business, Kenyan businesses are increasingly recruiting women into leadership positions, with the share of women on boards 36% in 2021, up from 21% in 2018,” they note.
The Reykjavik Index for Leadership is an international measure of how societies perceive the suitability of women for leadership. It measures perceptions of equality for men and women in leadership, and runs from 0 to 100. A score of 100 means that across society, there is common understanding that men and women are equally suited to leadership, in all sectors. Any score of less than 100 is an indication of prejudice in society.
The Index, which is a partnership between research organisation Verian and Reykjavík Global Forum, was launched in 2018 for the G7 countries (Canada, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America), and Iceland, and has been repeated every year since for the G7, plus additional select groups of countries each year. In 2025, the Index extended to understanding perceptions of women and men in leadership in Kenya and Nigeria.
This year’s average score for the G7 is 68 — at the same level as in 2024 — with some nuance and some positive changes registered by Japan (+4), and Italy and France (+2). The greatest regression in attitudes since last year was in the UK (-4 points) and the US (-3). Iceland continues to have the highest score of any country measured, with a Reykjavik Index of 86. In 2024 the result was 87. Nigeria has a score of 59 to almost match Germany (60) within the G7 after an increase of 2 points.
Attitudes are shaped most by the value placed on gender equality. Those who see gender equality as important scored 57 against 46 for those who said they do not believe gender equality is important.
In Kenya a far higher share of people believe gender equality has been achieved at work, in leadership positions in companies and other organisations, and in politics in 2025 than was the case in 2024. There is a significant increase in all three areas (at work – from 50-62, in leadership positions in companies and other organisations – from 53-65, and in politics- from 54-63) surveyed. Asked whether they believe that gender equality has been achieved in leadership positions in companies and other organisations, men answer yes to a higher degree than women (69 vs. 61). Older people also share this sentiment (68 vs. 62). There is a similar sentiment when it comes to the workplace, (66 vs. 60) among those 35-65 years old.
Education is the top influence on attitudes towards women in leadership, especially for women, while men cite culture and tradition more often. Media as well as religion or faith have the least influence on the views about women in leadership according to the public in Kenya.
The Index is based on the perceptions of women and men’s suitability for leadership across 23 sectors in society. Education is the sector with the highest score (71%) for the perception that men and women are equally suited for leadership. Suitability for women in the sector scored 17% and suitability for men 11%. The next top four sectors are pharmaceutical, medical research and banking and finance. Kenya’s lowest scoring sectors are childcare; fashion and beauty and gaming.
The five sectors where women are seen as more suitable for leadership are childcare (66% for women compared to 3% for men), fashion and beauty (60% for women compared to 5% for men, healthcare and wellbeing (30% for women compared to 7% for men), education (17% for women compared to 11 % for men), and charity (42% for women compared to 7% for men.)
The highest prejudice against women’s leadership was in Defence and police where only 5% believed women should lead, compared to 51% who thought men should lead; automotive manufacture (5% for women against 51% for men), gaming (51% for men against 7% for women); engineering (5% for women against 34% for men) and aerospace (10% for women against 37% for men).,
The most improved sectors from 2024 to 2025 include natural sciences (+10); economics and political science (+8) healthcare, well-being (+8) and high-tech, artificial intelligence (+8).
The lowest scoring sectors are those that tend to be either female or male dominated. There are nine sectors where women are seen as more suitable to lead, and 13 sectors where men are seen as more suitable to lead, indicating a slight prejudice against women leaders. Within Judiciary the numbers for both men and women are the same.
Young people provide a significantly higher score within three sectors fashion and beauty; intelligence services and judiciary.
How Index was constructed
The Reykjavík Index for Leadership was constructed based on research exploring the question: “For each of the following sectors or industries, do you think men or women are better suited to leadership positions?”
This question allows responses of ‘men’, ‘women’, ‘both equally’ and ‘don’t know’ for 23 different economic and professional sectors. A response of ‘both equally’ results in a point for that country within the Index, while a response of ‘men better suited’, ‘women better suited’ does not. ‘Don’t know’ are excluded from the Index score.
A country’s Reykjavík Index for Leadership is equal to the average proportion of people selecting ‘both equally’ across the 23 economic sectors.
The data source for 2025 is a survey of at least 1000 working age-adults (aged 18-65) collected in each country.
In Kenya, 1075 interviews were collected by Apex Research Solutions, using Random Digit Dialling. The samples have been weighted so that each country’s gender and age profile match the relevant population profile. Efforts were made to collect responses from all regions in Kenya.
