The Key to More Female CEOs: More Female Board Members
An article from CNN Money explores how more women board members—and more diversity on boards in general—can help promote a gender equality at the top, leading to more women CEOs. Click through to read about how term limits could also help, how women help the push for recruiting more minorities and women, and more.
You've seen the headlines about the lack of female leadership, the challenges women overcome to reach the C-suite and the dwindling numbers of women at the top.
Some companies are testing out structured mentoring, empowerment programs and ambition summits to fix the problem and correct gender imbalances. But other experts say this may not be a bottom-up problem as much as a top-down one, which begins with a startling lack of diversity on company boards.
A majority of companies in the S&P 500 have at least one woman on their boards, but only 25 percent have two, according to a recent study from PwC.
In order for boards to appoint more female CEOs, there first have to be more female board members to vote for them, says Anna Beninger, senior director of research and corporate engagement partner at Catalyst, a non-profit studying women and work.
"It's complicated when you look at the board, but we have to appreciate the incredible influence that they have in determining who is going to be that CEO-level role, and notably, if they stay and how successful they are," she says.
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