The Pipeline to the Top:
- 1 November 2006
- journal article
- Published by Academy of Management in Academy of Management Perspectives
- Vol. 20 (4), 42-64
- https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2006.23270306
Abstract
People often ask about the pipeline of women in line for the top position in major U.S. corporations. Despite persistent interest in this issue, we do not yet have good answers to the question of how long it will take until more than a token number of women hold the CEO position. This study provides numerical estimates that help to answer this question, and also provides new information regarding the job responsibilities and positions in the executive hierarchy of women and men below the rank of CEO. This article presents the results of an extensive data collection effort that has yielded a comprehensive census of top executives in U.S. Fortune 1000 firms as of the year 2000. With regard to the pipeline to the CEO position, our data suggest that we should expect to see a slow increase in the percentage of CEOs that are women in the next five to ten years. Nevertheless, the percentage of CEOs that are women is likely to remain relatively low. As a result, our estimates suggest that if current trends continue, perhaps 6 percent of CEOs in the Fortune 1000 will be women by 2016. We also document the little known fact that almost 50 percent of the firms in the Fortune 1000 had no women as top executives as recently as the year 2000. Moreover, even firms with women executives generally had only 1 or 2 per firm.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Additions to corporate boards: the effect of genderJournal of Corporate Finance, 2005
- External succession and disruptive change: heirs-apparent, forced turnover and firm performanceStrategic Organization, 2005
- CEOs who have COOs: contingency analysis of an unexplored structural formStrategic Management Journal, 2004
- Cracks in the Glass CeilingGroup & Organization Management, 2003
- External management succession, human capital, and firm performance: an integrative analysisManagerial and Decision Economics, 2003
- The Gender Gap in Top Corporate JobsILR Review, 2001
- A decade of corporate women: some progress in the boardroom,none in the executive suiteStrategic Management Journal, 1999
- CEO duality, succession, capabilities and agency theory: commentary and research agendaStrategic Management Journal, 1998
- Specificity of CEO human capital and compensationStrategic Management Journal, 1997
- Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top ManagersAcademy of Management Review, 1984