Overall the picture isn’t much brighter across the EU for women in leadership positions with it being common for even large stock exchanges to have less than a handful of female chief executives. However, Ireland, with a population of five million, will be an outlier from Wednesday, when Eddie Byrne succeeds Sweeney as chief.

Almost every other EU country, except the small state of Luxembourg, has at least one woman at the top of a listed company, according to analysis by Bloomberg. All other member states have female chief executives, besides Slovakia, which has one company, Biotika, run by three directors including a woman.

Only 8% of chief executive positions at the largest listed companies in the EU28 in 2023 were women, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality. It’s a bleak insight into the state of gender equality in corporate Europe, and now especially in Ireland, which has become a poster child for progressing in a short stint of time.

Even in similarly-sized Scandinavian countries women are scarce in top roles, despite their progressive reputations. Sweden’s main OMX Stockholm 30 index was earlier this year left with only one female chief executive among 30 after a series of resignations among women in top roles, including fast-fashion giant H&M's Helena Helmersson and phone carrier Telia’s Alison Kirkby. Both were replaced by men.

The lack of gender equality at the top of companies listed on Ireland’s exchange is exacerbated by the fact it is dominated by traditionally male-heavy industries like construction, said Gillian Harford, Ireland’s country executive at 30% Club, a campaign group that aims to increase female representation on company boards. Euronext Dublin boasts large caps such as Ryanair and Kingspan.

While there has been progress on achieving equality at board level in Ireland, the lack of a female CEO in a listed company shows there is much to be done to shatter the glass ceiling.

A government report from November showed female board representation stood at 39%, up from 18% five years earlier. That included an 8 percentage point increase in the number of women taking up chief finance officer roles.

Outside of listed companies, Ireland has a burgeoning startup scene that appears to attract more women than the public companies. It was the third in Europe for investment in women-led startups, according to financial research firm PitchBook. However, many of those companies have decided not to IPO in Ireland so far, a wider struggle for Euronext Dublin which has seen some of its most well-established companies including Flutter Entertainment Plc flock to larger pools of capital in the US.

“Right along the scaling escalator we have specific strategic initiatives to support and ensure that the correct policies are in place to encourage a pipeline of strong female managers and female founders to come through the ecosystem,” said Jenny Melia, executive director at government business agency Enterprise Ireland. “There certainly is a big focus on it here in Ireland.”

- Bloomberg