Rising number of female CEOs

Starting slow, women are now rising up the top positions in companies across different sectors in the world. Early this year, Mary Barra was named the CEO of General Motors, one of world's largest automakers by vehicle unit sales. Being a completely male-dominated Industry, GM appointing a woman as its head is a huge victory for women everywhere.

Women like Meg Whitman (HP), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), and Virginia Rometty (IBM) and Sheryl Sandberg too, are leading the tech industry, which was again considered to be a male dominated industry till just a few years ago. Other sectors which have seen this transformation (at least in USA) is the energy sector, agriculture and food companies and aerospace and defense companies, amongst others.

According to a report by Strategies and Business, IT companies, consumer staples, and consumer discretionary industries have had the highest percentages of female CEOs in the past 14 years, whereas those in the materials industry have had the lowest.   Even with the numbers and percentages fluctuating in the last decade, there is a greater number of incoming women CEOs than outgoing; which indicates that the trend will only accelerate in the coming years.

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However, the study also found out that a significant number of women are forced out of office- 38% (percentage of male CEOs being 27 %). It was also reported that women (4years) tend to have shorter tenures as CEOs in comparison to men (5years). But despite these figures, future for aspiring women CEOs looks bright.

Currently, the number of women graduating with MBA degrees is increasing. According to a report by The Catalyst, 37 percent of MBA graduates in the 2010–11 academic year were female. And even everywhere else in the world, over 50% of students studying in Universities are women; and make up 40% of the workforce.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Strategy and Business http://digitaledition.strategy-business.com/display_article.php?id=1707974&id_issue=208754