More women are attaining the top job at companies in the S&P 500, but their numbers are still minuscule compared to their male counterparts.
Of the 341 CEOs included in the AP’s annual compensation survey, 25 are women. That’s the most women making the list since the survey began in 2011. But the numbers haven’t budged very much. The second highest tally was 21 women in 2017.
The survey, based on data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar, includes CEOs at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2024.
Christy Glass, a professor of sociology at Utah State University who studies equity, inclusion and leadership, says that while seeing more female CEOs this year is a positive, overall the trends are discouraging.
“We’ll see a year where there’s kind of a banner year of women CEOs,” she says. ”But then a year or two down the road, we’ll see a significant turnover.”
Lisa Su, CEO and chair of the board of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, was the highest paid female CEO in the AP survey for the fifth year in a row in fiscal 2023, bringing in total compensation worth $30.3 million—flat with her compensation package a year earlier. Her rank rose to 21 overall from 25.
