What’s in a name
Women have long been under-represented in the boardrooms of big business, a phenomenon that led to a New York Times piece in 2015 which revealed that there were more Johns, Jons, or Jonathans running S&P 1500 companies than female-led organizations.
A recent Bloomberg update with similar analysis has revealed some progress, with more female CEOs in the flagship S&P 500 Index than ever before. Indeed, 41 women now lead S&P 500 companies, with execs like Mary Barra heading up GM, Adena Friedman at Nasdaq and Corie Barry at Best Buy.
The total count is up 18 compared to where it was 8 years ago, and it means, for the first time, that the tally of 41 female CEOs finally matches the 23 + 18 CEOs that are called Jon / John or James. Last year, 13% of new CEOs were female, suggesting that the count of 41 is likely to rise — but 50:50 representation seems, at a minimum, decades away.
Go deeper: with the new Bloomberg analysis and a 2018 revision from the Times.
