(Formerly published May 1, 2024 to LinkedIn.)

Women in the C-suite – calling all current C-suite folks

There’s some good news this year about women in the C-suite. For the first time in history, in 2023 “11% of Fortune 500 company CEOs are women [up from 9.6% in 1995], along with 30% of Fortune 500 board members [up from 10% in 1995]” (Pew Center for Research). Additionally, women occupy 33% of senior management positions in North America, while they also “now make up 35% of working in the United States’ 10 highest-paying occupations – up from 13% in 1980” (Pew). It’s a promising outlook. Yet, Fortune 500 companies make up two-thirds of the US GDP. Given that women make up 50.4% of the US population and 47% of the workforce, the C-suite percentages are not reflective of the population these companies serve.

Most C-suite leaders voice commitment to corporate social responsibility, organizational sustainability, and profitability. This means that we cannot sit on the sidelines when it comes to supporting the female pipeline to C-suite success. We need to identify barriers that C-suite aspiring women regularly encounter and do two things: (1) work to remove those barriers ourselves, and (2) provide support to women leaders whom we know as they work to overcome the barriers in front of them. Helping women realize their C-suite potential will grow the pipeline of leaders adequately equipped to step in when C-suite positions open. May the most qualified person, female or male, be placed in each C-suite role.

From my experience, excellent female leaders are willing to lead in C-suite roles, but they find it tough to get that chance. Sadly, opportunities are not afforded to everyone and sometimes, even the most talent get overlooked. Fast Company argued that “the path to reaching the C-Suite decreases significantly after the first 10 years of a woman’s career.” This presents us with a 10-year opportunity to intersect our support with women’s careers and their aspirations.

A variety of barriers exist, among them mastering the financials, acquiring significant P&L experience, accessing active mentorships and supportive networks, and finding apprenticeships designed for upward mobility.

10-year opportunity

Ideally, we should support women’s C-suite interests as they start to pursue their careers. This can happen in college at the undergraduate and graduate levels. One way to help close the mastering-the-financials gap, at least, is to attract women to the study of finance or economics. According to Data USA, 70% of general finance degrees are obtained by males, with only 30% attained by females. Data USA also reported that 66% of economics degrees are obtained by males and only 44% by females. Offering scholarships to full- and part-time female students wanting to pursue degrees in either area is a solid step in helping more women master the financials and start the P&L conversation. We need to reach female students before they get to college and reduce finance and economics degree barriers by offering competitive scholarship support.

As we do this, we don’t want to overlook the adult learner population, a group that has earned some college credit and wants to return to finish degrees.

According to Scholarships360, “While many scholarships require full-time enrollment, some have no requirements and some even cater specifically to part time students.” My personal queries have found that significantly fewer scholarships are available nationwide to part-time students when compared to full-time students. We can be part of the fix, especially because the rate at which part-time student enrollment continues to climb, many who work full-time while finishing their degrees. Interestingly, “As of July 2021, the Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population has reached 40.4 million, up 1.4 million from 39.0 million in the previous year” (NSCRC). Accruing financial knowledge early is a step in the right direction.

Beyond knowledge, actual P&L experience is widely known as a critical criterion of C-Suite promotion. A recent Korn Ferry study, “For Women Leaders, the Need for a Stronger Pipeline” found that “future CEOs need to be in sequenced global rotations across P&L leadership and key enterprise roles starting 10 to 15 years before they enter the C-suite. These key roles, especially broad general-management jobs, are often skipped over [for women].” Unfortunately, fewer female managers than men get this experience; they lag behind men by 9% or more. P&L assignments need to be made as a strategic means of cultivating C-Suite-minded women.

Cultivating P&L expertise can happen through active mentorships and supportive networks. There are not many female mentors available given that “there are so few women role models at the executive level to sponsor promising female talent” (Forbes). This has become even more challenging since 2019 because men have taken a step back. McKinsey and Lean In reported the following research results: “Senior-level men are now far more hesitant to spend time with junior women than junior men across a range of basic work activities.3 They are: [1] 12x more likely to hesitate to have 1-on-1 meetings; [2] 9x more likely to hesitate to travel together for work; [and 3] 6x more likely to hesitate to have work dinners. As for why this is happening, 36% of men say they’ve avoided mentoring or socializing with a woman because they were nervous about how it would look.” Men, I challenge you to step up to the plate and mentor anyway. At the same time, it’s clear that businesses have their work cut out in making mentorship and supportive networks more available. One option might be through the development of apprenticeship programs.

Many CEOs can track their success back to their start as company apprentices. The motivated company can develop apprentice-to-CEO (or C-suite) pipelines through structured, in-house programming. We know apprenticeship works as employees enter our companies, they should also work to develop C-suite leaders. Additionally, we can invite female C-suite-aspiring applicants to a professional development C-suite track that we support. Accepted applicants can be directed to opportunities such as Wharton’s Global C-Suite Program while being fully funded by their sponsoring employer.

The female CEO pipeline needs our support. I believe that finance and economics scholarships for full- and part-time female students, strategically assigned P&L responsibilities in the first ten management years, active mentorships despite the challenges, and apprentice-to-CEO possibilities are needed.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author.