Insights

Men were three times as likely as women to have been encouraged to consider a P&L role and twice as likely to have been promoted or selected for leadership training in the past two years.

– Vanessa Fuhrmans, The Wall Street Journal

Number of Women CEOs in Fortune 500 Companies by Year

According to the World Economic Forum, the proportion of women in senior executive roles globally has been stuck at 24% for more than a decade.23

In the United States, one in five C-Suite leaders (including CHROs and CFOs) are women; one in 25 C- Suite leaders are women of color.24

Working Mother Media’s 2019 survey of 3000 men and women leaders showed that 48% of men said they have received detailed information on career paths to P&L jobs in the past 24 months vs 15% of women. Moreover, 46% of men were encouraged to consider operating roles vs 14% of women.25

Number of Women CEOs in Fortune 500 Companies by Year

A 2019 study by LeanIn and McKinsey & Company looked at 590 companies from private, public, and social sectors employing more than 22 million people over the span of five years. It found that “about a third of companies set targets for the representation of women at first-level manager, compared to 41 percent for senior levels of management.”26

That same study found that the perception of gender diversity does not always match the reality. For example, “when 1 in 3 managers in their company is a woman, 62% of men and 54% of women think women are well represented at first-level management. Likewise, when 1 in 10 senior leaders in their company is a woman, 44% of men and 22% of women think women are well represented in senior leadership.”27

The study also found that women are stymied by a broken promotion system. For every 100 men promoted or hired at the manager position, only 72 women are, leaving more women at entry level. Men end up holding 62 percent of manager-level positions, while women hold just 38 percent.”28

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