International Women’s Day: In celebration of female CEOs

 What's the number of female CEOs in the S&P 500?

In 2023, the number of female CEOs in the S&P 500 finally outnumbered men named John. While this was a long time coming, it still shows that women can rise to the top of the corporate ladder. However, there is still a long way to go, and women CEOs make up a mere 6% of all S&P 500 CEOs. In the UK, there is a larger percentage of female CEOs, 9% of CEOs on the FTSE 100 are women. In Europe the figure is 7.7%. 

These numbers should grow in the future, since women are not only good managers and CEOs, but the companies they run are profitable. For example, the female CEOs in the S&P 500 run companies including Oracle, GM, Walgreens and Duke Energy. These companies all have multi billion market capitalisation and together they have generated significantly more than $500bn in revenue in the last 12 months. This data shows that female leaders are an important part of the S&P 500, and without them the index would suffer. 

For example, Tapestry, the luxury goods conglomerate, is the fourth best performing stock in the S&P 500 so far in 2024. It has gained more than 30% since January, and it is led by Joanne Crevoiserat. Other sectors that have female CEOs include tech, energy and consumer discretionary. 

The Hypatia Women CEO ETF, is a US fund that invests at least 80% of its net assets in US companies that are led by women. This fund is a good proxy for how female CEOs perform in the US. In the chart below, the Hypatia Women CEO ETF has lagged the S&P 500 index, however, it has moved in line with the equal-weighted S&P 500, which strips out the distorting effect of the mega tech firms. The similar gains for the women CEO ETF and the equal weighted S&P 500 are a reflection of the wide variety of sectors that have women at the helm and is further evidence of women’s broad skill set and expertise in every area of the US and global economy. 

Chart 1: The Hypatia Women CEO ETF (white line), S&P 500 equal weighted index (yellow line) and the S&P 500 (orange line). 

Source: Bloomberg

Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results, and any person acting on this information does so entirely at their own risk.

What is the highest proportion of female CEOs outside of the US?

Outside of the US, Thailand has the highest proportion of female CEOs, and 30% of companies on the Thai stock exchange have a female leader. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), if you are working in Jordan, Saint Lucia, Botswana or the Philippines it is more likely that your boss is a woman rather than a man. Jordan takes the top spot, with women making up 62% of all managerial roles. In the Philippines, females also account for 43% of senior management and executive positions.  This is in contrast to the US, where only 40% of managers are female, according to the ILO.  

The ILO also notes that women hold the highest number of senior and managerial positions in human resources, administration, marketing, finance and public relations, which are considered business support functions. The Philippines has a large business process outsourcing industry, which explains the large number of women in senior positions in the country. 

To conclude, it's a long road to parity with men. However, more women than ever are in leadership positions, and this means that in future there will be more women at the helm of global companies than ever before. As we have mentioned above, female-led firms have robust revenue growth and perform just as well as companies led by men, which is why more female CEOs are needed.