Female chief executives are the victims of ‘tall poppy syndrome’, a leadership consultant has claimed as a new analysis shows that global chief executive gender parity is still 81 years away despite a record number of women being appointed to the role. In the UK, parity for FTSE 100 CEOs will not be reached until 2141 (117 years away).
Leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates found that 10% of female CEOs departed their roles last year with more than a quarter (27%) of these being dismissed. This led to one analyst to say women were being singled out and subject to more scrutiny than their male counterparts.
Among other headline trends revealed was that boards have turned to internal candidates to provide continuity, accounting for 77% of new CEO appointments.
Russell Reynolds Associates’ 2023 Global CEO Turnover report analyses the drivers behind CEO appointments and departures over the past 12 months across 12 national and international stock markets.
The report paints a mixed picture for efforts to ensure more women CEOs lead the world’s top businesses. Despite departures remaining high across all global indices last year, the estimated time to achieve parity shows significant variance. At the current rate of change the S&P 500 in the US finds itself 59 years away from achieving gender parity, 15 years ahead of the global average (74 years). Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 is not on track to reach this goal for another 117 years.
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Last year, global indices saw 12% of CEO appointments (22) go to women candidates, a joint record with 2022. European and Australian indices lead the pack, with a quarter (25%) of CEO roles going to women in the Euronext 100 and ASX 200. The FTSE 100 was not far behind at 19%.
However, 2023 was also a record year for the rate of women CEO departures. A tenth of all global CEO departures this year were women, with women three times as likely to leave for personal reasons (16% versus 5% for men) and significantly more likely to be removed from the role (34% versus 25%).
As a result, men on average serve as CEO for four and a half years longer (8.7 years compared to 4.1 years) than women globally. This figure does however vary significantly across the globe, with the FTSE 100 beating the global average with women’s tenure trailing men’s by 2.4 years and while the S&P500 fares significantly worse at 7.8 years.
Laura Sanderson, UK lead and EMEA co lead of Russell Reynolds Associates, said there had to be a conversation about why women CEOs were leaving their roles prematurely. “Last year, we saw women CEOs being fired at a much higher rate than their male counterparts. Today’s CEOs are expected to be more of a public figure than ever before, and the relative scarcity of female CEOs automatically gives them a higher degree of prominence. So they get disproportionate media attention; but the stories that are written about them show that we still have paradoxical expectations of them. If you’re a woman, you are under more pressure to visibly outperform. But woe betide you if you’re seen to be enjoying the profile of the CEO role too much or if you become too prominent, as tall poppy syndrome is never far away.”
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