ع
A 2026 study of listed-company executives moves the discussion from broad ambitions to a defined set of roles, while She Invest connects financial literacy with participation in decision-making.
A discussion about women in leadership becomes more precise when it identifies which jobs are being counted. Research published by She Invest, led by Shaima Bin Hussain, provides that starting point for Kuwait’s listed companies, examining executive positions separately from membership of boards.
The study, based on disclosures available to 30 June 2026, records 57 women across 661 executive positions in 140 listed companies, or 8.6% of the roles surveyed. It reports women in executive positions at 30 companies. These are the consultancy’s findings from its defined dataset, rather than a measure of every management position in Kuwait’s economy.
The importance of the work is the distinction it makes possible. A board seat, an executive role and ownership of an investment are different forms of economic participation. They involve different responsibilities and routes into decision-making. Counting them separately gives the discussion a considerably stronger local foundation than treating all leadership as one category.
A defined view of executive responsibility
She Invest says its research draws on company disclosures published through Boursa Kuwait. Its executive study is intended as a separate exercise from its earlier work on boards, with the two examining different levels of corporate responsibility. The source and cut-off date matter because appointments and disclosure coverage can change.
That creates a useful baseline, but it does not by itself explain why any particular person obtained a role or why representation differs between businesses. A dataset can locate a pattern before further reporting establishes its causes. Keeping those tasks separate avoids turning a count into a conclusion about individual companies’ recruitment practices.
For readers, the immediate value is clarity about the population being discussed. Listed companies have disclosure obligations and identifiable senior structures. Their composition can be studied in a way that is not automatically transferable to family businesses, small enterprises, government bodies or the wider workforce. The boundary makes the research more useful, not less relevant.
Financial knowledge and financial authority
Bin Hussain’s work also addresses the stage before a formal leadership role. At an AmCham Kuwait Women in Business Diwaniya in February 2026, she joined speakers discussing financial literacy, investment awareness and family wealth. The event brought together AmCham, CFA Society Kuwait, the Union of Investment Companies and Boeing.
The organiser’s account framed financial knowledge as a foundation for participation in investment decisions. That connects household and institutional settings without pretending they are identical. Understanding a portfolio does not qualify someone for every board role, but financial decision-making requires familiarity with risk, evidence and the consequences of allocating money.
The international context reinforces the value of that distinction. The OECD’s 2023 financial-literacy survey covered 39 countries and economies and considered knowledge, behaviour and attitudes together. Its approach treats literacy as more than the ability to recognise financial terminology. These are international findings and should not be presented as a survey of women in Kuwait.
A board role involves a different set of duties
She Invest’s public programme combines financial education, networks and preparation for governance responsibilities. The connection between those activities is more substantive than a general message about confidence: they concern how people develop knowledge, become visible within professional circles and prepare for roles with formal obligations.
The G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance emphasise transparent nomination processes and the combination of skills and experience a board requires. They also identify training, mentoring, networks and broader talent development as measures that can support diversity. Those principles provide an international reference point, not a claim about a new legal requirement in Kuwait.
The practical implication is that representation and preparation belong in the same conversation. The responsibilities of overseeing management, considering risk and evaluating corporate disclosures do not disappear when access widens. A more diverse candidate pool and a clearer understanding of the role can be pursued together.
The exercise also separates visibility from authority. A professional may be prominent in public discussions without holding a formal executive position, while someone with substantial organisational responsibility may have little public profile. A study based on disclosed roles can examine the latter without relying on social visibility as a proxy. That is particularly useful in a subject where well-known individual examples can otherwise dominate the account and obscure the size or composition of the wider group.
Turning a snapshot into a continuing record
The separate board study, dated to February 2026, illustrates why the categories should remain distinct. Boards oversee and appoint; executive teams run the business within the authority assigned to them. A change in one group is not automatically evidence of a change in the other, even when the two form part of a longer professional pathway.
The next analytical step is therefore consistency over time. Repeating a defined method can show whether the same population is changing. Without that discipline, an apparent improvement might reflect a revised sample or a different definition of seniority rather than a greater number of women entering comparable roles.
Bin Hussain’s contribution is to make those questions available for examination in a local context. The work connects financial education with the institutions where capital and strategy are decided, while giving the leadership discussion a specific dataset. Its value will deepen as subsequent research shows not only who holds a position at one date, but how those routes into responsibility develop.
