Seven out of ten companies believe that extending parental leave does not affect productivity

The figure, taken from the business climate in Spain study based on 1,900 surveys between August and September 2025, challenges the arguments that have historically linked parental leave to losses in efficiency.

The view is broadly consistent across companies of different sizes and sectors. From micro-enterprises with six to nine employees to those with more than 100 and in sectors ranging from construction to tourism, the majority do not expect a significant effect. Only one in three companies anticipates a noticeable impact on their operations.

The positive outlook on parental leave contrasts with the picture the study presents of the composition of workforces. In 42.1% of companies, women account for half or more of the workforce, while 4.1% have no female employees at all.

There are marked differences between sectors. In construction, 58.5% of companies have a workforce that is less than 20% female, compared with 38.4% in industry.

At the other end of the scale, tourism, hospitality and catering have the highest proportion of women, with almost two-thirds of companies having a workforce that is more than 50% female.

The imbalance becomes more pronounced higher up the organisational hierarchy. Almost half of companies (49.1%) have fewer than 20% women in their management teams, while in more than a third of cases there are no women at this level at all.

Construction is once again at the bottom of the table: in 62.8% of construction companies, women account for no more than 20% of management positions.

Nevertheless, the study identifies an improvement compared with the previous year: the proportion of companies where women occupy half or more of management positions has risen from 32.5% to 36.2% in one year.

When asked about the causes of this gender gap in management, almost half of companies (47.3%) directly point to a lack of work-life balance measures, which leads women to give up positions of responsibility because of the burden of domestic duties.

This is followed, at some distance, by the under-representation of women in sectors such as engineering, finance and technology (20.1%), and voluntary decisions to step back driven by social and cultural biases (19.1%).

In response to this diagnosis, companies themselves also identify what they consider to be the most effective solution: flexible working hours, cited by 56.4% of companies, well ahead of remote working (31.2%) and increased financial support for childcare (20.5%).

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