Despite HR being a female-dominated field, new research finds men hold the majority of strategic HR roles. Here are strategies to bridge this gap and ensure all HR leaders are understood as a strategic partner in business.
By Maggie Mancini
Though HR is a female-dominated field, it is not free from gender bias. In fact, research from isolved finds that men hold 86% of strategic HR roles despite women making up more than 70% of HR leadership overall. At the root of this issue is the long-standing stereotype that strategic leadership equates to traits like decisiveness and assertiveness, which are traditionally labeled as “masculine,” says Heidi Barnett, president of talent acquisition at isolved.
Other core competencies like collaboration, emotional intelligence, and change management are undervalued, she says. For many organizations, lack of visibility is a core challenge contributing to this pattern, as men are more likely to be tapped for roles tied to business impact.
“For organizations to evolve the HR function, they must take a proactive and systematic approach, starting with how talent is identified,” Barnett explains. “Through audits of hiring and promotion practices, organizations can uncover where imbalances exist, whether through subjective criteria and the underrepresentation of women in talent pipelines.”
Development and mentorship programs should be intentionally designed to ensure equitable pathways to leadership for existing talent, she adds. Finally, equity metrics should be included in executive dashboards to normalize workforce equity across all functions—not just in HR.
The report finds that female HR leaders are 15% more likely to report through finance or payroll versus CEOs or owners. In these cases, their ability to be seen as strategic is severely constrained by these structures, which focus heavily on compliance, risk mitigation, and cost control, Barnett says.
These functions view HR through an operational lens, reducing HR to an administrative function, rather than a driver of business success. This leads to a pattern of female HR leaders not being included in high-level decision-making, which makes it more difficult to secure buy-in for people-first strategies.
“To shift this narrative, organizations must rethink how HR is positioned in their business structure,” Barnett says. “When female HR leaders are given a direct line to CEOs or business owners, they gain a platform and visibility to shape meaningful culture, build future-ready workforces and drive business growth. By aligning HR with the right leadership and reporting structures, organizations can unlock the full value of HR and empower the women leading it.”
Female HR leaders are 47% more likely to create an employee experience focused on collaboration and teamwork, while male HR leaders are more likely to focus on a manager-led culture, the research finds. This difference isn’t just about leadership style, but about how influence is earned on the path to HR leadership, Barnett explains.
“Women often build their careers in roles that require them to lead through relationships, not authority,” she explains. “By the time they’re in charge, collaboration isn’t just a preference, it’s a proven way to get things done. It’s how they’ve driven impact for years. They focus on building cultures where people feel connected, heard, and supported because they’ve seen firsthand how that drives performance, retention, and innovation.”
On the other hand, male HR leaders are more likely to rise through operations-heavy roles like compliance or employee relations that reward structure, consistency, and top-down accountability, she adds. It doesn’t make the approach wrong—it just means they’re wired to think in terms of frameworks, hierarchies, and clear lines of ownership.
“The real takeaway here isn’t that one style is better than the other,” Barnett adds. “It’s that most organizations don’t realize how much the employee experience is shaped by the background of the person leading it. The best HR leaders today know how to blend both, empowering managers and teams, using structure and collaboration. That balance is what creates cultures that actually perform.”
Positioning HR as a strategic partner, rather than just a compliance function, helps align HR with company goals. This means giving HR a seat at the table in executive-level decision-making and providing leaders with access to the same data, business insights, and growth targets as their peers in finance, sales, and operations to align with broader organizational goals, Barnett says.
“To drive alignment further, organizations should set clear, measurable objectives that connect talent strategy and business outcomes, whether it’s reducing turnover to reduce costs or prioritizing AI skill development to enhance business efficiency,” she adds. “When HR works closely with other departments, workforce strategies become more balanced, ensuring they meet and evolve with business goals and employee needs.”
Below are some recommendations for how HR leaders can level the playing field between men and women to ensure HR is understood as a strategic partner in business.
- Audit how leadership potential is evaluated. It’s important to question whether the organization is overvaluing assertiveness and underestimating influence built through relationships, Barnett explains. By ensuring leaders are promoting the most impactful voices, rather than just the loudest people in the room, HR professionals can help level the playing field.
- Ensure the work of HR is being measured through impact. “If we want HR to be seen as strategic, we have to show up with metrics: reduced turnover, stronger internal mobility, faster time-to-productivity,” she says. “And we need to frame those wins in business terms, not just HR terms.”
- Recognize female HR leaders as drivers of business growth. “Women in HR often lead from behind the curtain,” Barnett says. “We need to own the narrative, present the strategy, and claim the results. Not because we want credit for the sake of credit, but because strategic leaders need to be seen to be heard.”
