Female CEOs Still In Very Short Supply At S&P 500 Companies

Although the gap between men and women in executive-level positions has remained a focus for quite some time, that gap has not improved over the years. In fact, a new study indicates that the number of female CEOs at S&P 500 companies has declined slightly over the last year. And this disparity extends to the banking industry as well, where the number of women in the industry is still disproportionately low to the number of men and the pay gap that has long existed between the genders also continues.

Only 21 female CEOs in the S&P 500

S&P Capital IQ Director Pavle Sabic reports that on average, the number of female chief executives among S&P 500 companies only increased by one every two years between 2006 and 2015, rising from 16 in 2006. However, this year brought a slight decline as there were only 21 female CEOs in the index compared to 25 at the end of last year.

As of February, there were 23 female CEOs at the companies in the index. In 2006, 3.2% of the companies in the S&P 500 were led by women, while today the percentage is 4.2%. In a decade, the S&P 500’s male leadership has only declined by 1 percentage point to 96%.

S&P Capital notes that this year Avon, which is headed by Sheri McCoy, was removed from the S&P 500 this year because it has been underperforming the index over the past few years, resulting in the loss of one woman from the index. In November, DuPont appointed Ed Breen to replace Ellen Kullman as CEO. Here’s a look at the current list of female CEOs among S&P 500 companies, as of Nov. 23:

IT has the most female CEOs

Interestingly, S&P Capital IQ found that the Information Technology sector – which is dominated by male employees in general – has the most female CEOs. However, as Sabic also notes, the IT is also driving innovation in business, which may be one of the reasons it is leading in female CEOs. In second and third places, respectively, are Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples.