“See I know you can’t help me Mr. Intentional / The only help I need to live is unprofessional / The only wealth I have to give is not material / And if you need much more than that, I’m not available.” — Lauryn Hill
On Wednesday, Harvard Business Review’s Francesca Gino and and Alison Wood Brooks published an article titled, “Explaining Gender Differences at the Top,” which examined why women are underrepresented in most senior-level leadership positions across various industries. They noted that women make up “less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs, less than 15% of executive officers at those companies, less than 20% of full professors in the natural sciences, and only 6% of partners in venture capital firms.”
As noted by Julie Triedman of The American Lawyer, here is a more extensive list of women representation in leadership positions across various industries (with the percentage of women leaders in parentheses):
- Nonprofit CEOS: 45%
- Fortune 10 company executive officers: 19.8%
- CPA partners: 17%
- Commissioned military officers: 17%
- Architecture firm principals or partners: 17%
- Fortune board directors: 16.9%
- Law firm equity partners: 16.8%
- Top 10 tech company CEOs: 16.6%
- Investment bank executives: 11%
- Venture capital partners: 6%
FOOTNOTE 4 