Great Place To Work® has been surveying employees around the world about their workplace experiences for 30 years. We have developed a set of themes and metrics that not only reveal whether employees feel their workplace is great, but also predict retention, agility, and overall business success.
Using our proprietary Trust Index™ survey, we measure the core of what we know creates great workplaces — key behaviors that drive trust in management, connection with colleagues, and loyalty to the company.
The survey enables employees to share confidential quantitative and qualitative feedback about their organization’s culture by responding to 60 statements on a five-point scale and answering two open-ended questions.
Employees tell us whether leaders are accessible, communicate honestly and clearly, and if their actions match their words. They tell us whether they feel respected as individuals, if they receive training, benefits, appreciation, support for their well-being, and opportunities to contribute. They tell us whether they believe their company is fair related to pay, profits, promotions, recognition, favoritism, and opportunities. They tell us if they are proud of their work, their team, and their company, and if they feel they make a difference and their work is meaningful. And, they tell us whether they enjoy the people they work with, feel cared for, and can be themselves.
List rankings are based on this employee feedback, which we analyze to determine the extent to which this experience is shared by the full workforce. To determine the Best Workplaces for Women, Great Place To Work measures self-identified women’s survey responses, compares them to those of their peers, and analyzes the extent to which women’s demographic backgrounds or position within the organization change that experience. Statements are weighted according to their relevance in describing the most important aspects of an equitable workplace for women.
The best companies create great work experiences for all women – not just for female full-time managers, but also for female part-time employees on the front lines, for those who’ve just joined and those who’ve spent their whole career there, for women of every race and ethnicity, neurotype, or other demographic in the organization – we look at it all. Companies with the broadest set of women who report positive workplace experience receive the highest rankings on the list.
In order to analyze employee feedback in context, we collect information from each company including their industry, revenue, size, and employee demographics. We identify the organizations that offer the most generous, caring, and innovative cultures reflecting a genuine commitment to meeting the diversity of their people’s needs inside and outside the workplace as validated by what employees themselves report in survey results. To determine the Best Workplaces for Women list, Great Place To Work analyzes the gender balance of each workplace, how it compares to Bureau of Labor Statistics industry data, and how representation changes as women rise from front-line positions to the board of directors.
Because employee feedback drives these rankings, surveys must meet strict requirements for how they are distributed and the percentage of employees who respond to ensure they accurately represent honest feedback from the company’s full population. At a minimum, to be considered for the Fortune Best Workplaces for Women, companies must be Great Place To Work Certified™ and must have at least 50 female employees, at least 20 percent of non-executive management must be women, and at least one C-Suite executive must be a woman. Companies with 50 to 999 people are considered for the small and medium category; companies with 1,000 employees or more are considered for the large category.
In the last year, Great Place To Work surveyed companies employing 7.3 million people in the U.S. and received 1.3 million survey responses. Of those, over 640,000 responses were received from female employees at companies who were eligible for the 2026 Fortune Best Workplaces for Women and this list is based on their feedback.
