The rate of women being promoted into senior executive roles is slowing down, and experts warn a shaky labor climate and dearth of professional infrastructure are further exacerbating an already obstruction-filled pipeline for women to become CEOs.<\/p>\n
\n
At the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Monday, Kelly Baker, executive vice president and chief human resource officer at financial services firm Thrivent, explained that there has been less of a focus on developing and recruiting women to join executive leadership. The slowdown is a byproduct of a frenetic environment that has deprioritized cultivating these leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we can ignore the fact that there is a climate where organizations aren\u2019t quite as focused,\u201d Baker told Fortune<\/em> Leadership Editor Claire Zillman. \u201cIf you take your foot off the pedal at all, you will start to stall.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Fortune 500 has 56 companies led by women, or about 11.2% of the list, up from 7.4% six years ago. However, women\u2019s share of roles in both the C-suite and at the board level has stalled at about 30%, marking the first decline in women\u2019s board representation in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Toni Townes-Whitley, a former Fortune 500 CEO and Nasdaq corporate board member, suggested fewer discussions about workplace diversity has led to less of a spotlight on promoting and developing women leaders, and in an attitude shift toward women\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t take away an environment where there is a question, almost a recalibration of women in the world, where unfortunately negative rhetoric from lots of different dimensions have women being challenged externally, internally, by the boards,\u201d Townes-Whitley said at the summit. \u201cThat\u2019s a concern, underlined, that\u2019s just not talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sure, problems in getting across the last mile before taking the helm of companies are persistent, and are also, in part, a result of women not viewing themselves as leaders. That\u2019s despite having skillsets and experience that would qualify them for these roles. <\/p>\n
Only 36% of women in the workplace have considered becoming a CEO or said they wanted to be a CEO, according to Jenna Fisher, managing director of global leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates: \u201cWe can\u2019t 3D print our candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayden Brown, president and CEO of freelance marketplace platform Upwork, was one of those women who didn\u2019t consider taking on the role of top brass, despite her mother running the women\u2019s empowerment program at her workplace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in like the most pro-women household, and yet it took our board chair,, probably 10 years ago, to say to me, \u2018You should be a CEO,\u2019\u201d Brown told Zillman. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Really?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown has worked to change how women view themselves in relation to leadership roles in her own home, editing the books she reads with her children to be more gender inclusive, or to switch out adjectives like \u201csmart\u201d to \u201chard-working\u201d to guide them toward the traits she wants them to embody.<\/p>\n
But making larger changes in the workplace will also require the awareness and backing of men, Baker said. Those in influential senior positions in the office, particularly men, will have to serve as both mentors, who support women through their careers, as well as sponsors, who advocate for\u00a0 high-potential women leaders in front of coworkers and other leaders.<\/p>\n
While creating systems to reinforce women\u2019s leadership pipelines are perhaps not being discussed or strengthened as much today, there\u2019s some good news, according to Fisher: AI has created pressure to have leaders who are adaptable and fluent in emerging technologies. Russell Reynolds Associates research indicates women are ahead of men in AI adoption and implementation, perhaps because of a willingness to adapt.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though DEI is not being talked about as much as it used to be,\u201d Fisher said, \u201cthere is still so much demand for women in executive roles and board roles.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#number #women #Csuite #roles #stalled #reasons #pipeline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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