The Fortune 500 is set to have more female CEOs than ever before
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Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Elle deems Rep. Katie Porter Congress’s ‘everywoman,’ SpaceX has a new power couple, and Fortune 500 female CEOs have hit a new high. Have a thoughtful Tuesday.
– 38! Two weeks ago, The Broadsheet reported on the 36th female CEO to join the Fortune 500 when Joanne Crevoiserat took over as Tapestry’s interim chief executive. Sue Nabi will be No. 37 when she becomes CEO of Coty on Sept. 1. And as of yesterday, the Fortune 500 is set to get its 38th women CEO when Linda Rendle takes over The Clorox Company’s corner office on Sept. 14.
Should CEO ranks hold between now and then, that 38 total will represent a record-high number of female chief executives.
It will be the third time in three years that the Fortune 500 has reached such a high. It did so in 2019 with 33 and again this past May with 37. Those bright spots followed a backslide in 2018, when the figure dropped 25% over the course of a year to 24.
Experts have attributed the slow but steady progress on this front, in part, to company boards becoming more diverse, which is itself a product of institutional investors demanding new blood in boardrooms. Christy Glass, a professor at Utah State University, told me last year that her research with co-author Alison Cook “has shown that when boards are well-integrated with women, women are much more likely to be appointed CEOs.” The push for board diversity, she said, “may be paying off in terms of women appointed as CEOs.”
To be sure, 38 female CEOs is still a minuscule share of Fortune 500 leadership overall and there is little racial diversity among the women that make up the too-elite club. But the trend, at least in terms of gender diversity, remains headed in the right direction.
Rendle, for her part, will replace Clorox’s CEO of nearly six years, Benno Dorer. As my colleague Phil Wahba reports, she was named president in May, a move that telegraphed the 42-year-old’s ascent to the top job. What’s more, Rendle’s promotion does not seem to be an instance of the so-called glass cliff, as has been the case with other recent appointments. Her new role was announced on Monday as Clorox reported better-than-expected quarterly results.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.