Only 25 Women Hold CEO Jobs at S&P 500 Companies

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Only 25 Women Hold CEO Jobs at S&P 500 Companies

© Wikimedia Commons (Asa Mathat / Fortune Live Media)

Research and advocacy firm Catalyst has released the list of women who are chief executive officers of S&P 500 companies. The figure is 25, or 5% of the universe. The move to get women to break the “glass ceiling” between them and the leadership of America’s largest companies is not working.

The list shows there is little concentration by industry, indicating that female CEOs are not confined to jobs in companies that cater to women. The list includes women in energy, finance, tech, consumer products, autos and retail.

Recently, experts have argued that the list of women who qualify for CEO jobs has grown exponentially over the past several decades, whether this is based on those who have MBAs, those who have held senior positions in their companies or women who have served on boards of those large corporations. None of that progress has mattered.

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From Catalyst, the list as of June 1:

Mary T. Barra, General Motors Co. (GM)

Gail Boudreaux, Anthem Inc.

Heather Bresch, Mylan N.V.

Michele Buck, The Hershey Company

Debra A. Cafaro, Ventas, Inc.

Safra A. Catz, Oracle Corp. (co-CEO)

Mary Dillon, Ulta Beauty

Virginia Drosos, Signet Jewelers Limited

Adena Friedman, Nasdaq

Michelle Gass, Kohl’s

Lynn J. Good, Duke Energy Corp.

Tricia Griffith, The Progressive Corp.

Marillyn A. Hewson, Lockheed Martin Corp.

Vicki Hollub, Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Patricia Kampling, Alliant Energy Corp.

Margaret Keane, Synchrony Financial

Beth E. Mooney, KeyCorp

Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo, Inc.

Phebe N. Novakovic, General Dynamics Corp.

Patricia K. Poppe, CMS Energy

Barbara Rentler, Ross Stores, Inc.

Virginia M. Rometty, International Business Machines (IBM) Corp.

Susan N. Story, American Water Works Company, Inc.

Geisha Williams, PG&E Corp.

The S&P 500 may have more female CEOs in a year. However, that is not guaranteed. It is possible that as the women currently on the list retire, they will be replaced by men. That could make the balance worse, but who would be surprised?

Methodology: The S&P 500, published by Dow Jones, is not a static list. Catalyst accesses the list annually in conjunction with this CEO list and its Census and Pyramid products. Whenever possible, it updates the women on the list throughout the year. Women are counted in the list starting on the date they officially take their positions.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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