The general trend will come as no surprise, but sometimes a stat can really hammer things home. From Upshot: Fewer women run big companies than men named John. Check out the Glass Ceiling Index.
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Fewer large companies are run by women than by men named John, a sure indicator that the glass ceiling remains firmly in place in corporate America.
A glass ceiling is a political term used to describe “the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.
Initially, and sometimes still today, the metaphor was applied by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high achieving women.[2] In the US the concept is sometimes extended to refer to obstacles hindering the advancement of minority men, as well as women.
In the US. Among chief executives of S.&P. 1500 firms, for each woman, there are four men named John, Robert, William or James. We’re calling this ratio the Glass Ceiling Index, and an index value above one means that Jims, Bobs, Jacks and Bills — combined — outnumber the total number of women, including every women’s name, from Abby to Zara. Thus we score chief executive officers of large firms as having an index score of 4.0.
Our Glass Ceiling Index is inspired by a recent Ernst & Young report, which computed analogous numbers for board directors. That report yielded an index score of 1.03 for directors, meaning that for every one woman, there were 1.03 Jameses, Roberts, Johns and Williams — combined — serving on the boards of S.&P. 1500 companies.
Women for Women articles in theMarketingblog