Women are making their mark in the executive ranks, but the fervor and effort behind improving representation in the corporate world took a slight hit as the national investment in DEI investment slowed after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Many fairly wonder if the future will include more progress. Both the labor market and consumers continue to express their interest in working for and patronizing diverse companies that represent their customers, so companies must make an intentional effort to build stronger leadership pipelines for women and other underrepresented groups to drive meaningful improvement.
Lindsay Trout, a partner and talent consultant at executive search firm Egon Zehnder, recently told Axios that search committees are less interested in diverse candidate pools, saying “that is not part of the conversation or expectation,” and the committees are also providing requirements such that, “you end up with a list that inevitably excludes females from consideration.”
In 1972, Katherine Graham became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company at the Washington Post. A lot has changed since then: The Post is no longer one of the world’s largest companies, technology has reshaped the working world and the representation of women in the corporate executive ranks has trickled up but is still not anywhere close to equitable.
Today, 55 women serve as Fortune 500 CEOs, the highest number ever, following a net gain of three from last year and marking the first time female representation has exceeded 10 percent. Experts point to an increase in internal promotions and a rise in women assuming pipeline roles such as CFO as signs that internal development of female leadership is on the rise in the corporate realm. But they also note that growth has been up and down over the last few years and other indices, such as the S&P 500, suggest that growth has stagnated or is merely happening at random instead of consistently progressing.
While the overall picture is one of progress, the incredibly gradual crawl of this figure, along with similarly inconsistent growth in other indicators such as female entrepreneurship, securing venture capital funding or admission into prestigious incubators, indicate a more principled and foundational approach to equity in executive representation is needed.
Graham was born into a wealthy family. Her father was the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve before buying the Washington Post and later handing the reins to his son-in-law, Philip, Katherine’s husband. That path is not exactly replicable.
Companies are doing a better job of placing women into the roles that typically come before a CEO hire, like CFO. Progress in these feeder roles is crucial in order to continue growing female representation in the executive ranks.
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