Let's Change the Anatomy of the World's Top CEOs
According to the graphic "Anatomy of the World's Top-Performing CEOs" created by Domo the average CEO is a married guy with a receding hairline who has 3.1 children (I feel sorry for that .1 child).
Furthermore he went to some fancy college. On the other hand, only 29 percent hold an MBA and 61 percent were educated outside of the United States.
Here's a stat that should make you smile, 79 percent were promoted from within; meaning hang in there and you can make your way up the corporate ladder.
Here's another plus. Many of the top companies are in California.
What's missing?
How old are these guys? Receding hairlines and 3.1 children implies middle age. It seems that experience (not just education) has a lot to do with a CEOs capabilities.
What else is missing?
Women. Only two of the top 100 CEOs are women!
Why in the 21st century do you think there are so few top women CEOs? Do women dislike being CEOs? Are women not cut out to be CEOs? You can't just say it's because there are so many great foreign companies--34 percent of the Top 100 companies are in the U.S. How does gender contribute to this lopsided statistic?
For me personally, I think the work that women do is underestimated. To paraphrase a quote from the film "MISS-representation," women have to work twice as hard as men just to be recognized for being half as good. This makes it much harder for women to climb up the corporate ladder than it is for men.
ReplyDeleteI think there are not many women CEOs because there are still strong social gender roles that our world associates with women. Men are still thought by our society to handle important position better than women. An example would be how there has never been a female president in the U.S. On a smaller level, men are thought to be the main bread winner of a family. These gender roles and ways of thinking have started to change, but there is still a long way to go.
ReplyDeleteWomen are rarely found in high power jobs just because it puts them under scrutiny all the time. When Hillary Clinton wanted to run for office, the debates were never about her brains and what she could offer to the presidential seat, but the term PMS got thrown in when talking about her. It’s hard to put women in places of power because they will be scrutinized and deemed fragile in the world of corporate America. This is why the percentage is so low for women CEO’s. They are seen as not strong enough so men are given promotions over women.
ReplyDeleteThe low rates of women CEOs makes sense when you consider the fact that 79% of CEOs were promoted from within. Reason being that if any group of people were to have a sexist mindset, it would be the older conservative men that run the corporate. They are the last generation to be raised in the time while Woman's rights were in progress. This could make it nearly impossible for any woman to climb their way up to the top.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are less women CEO's because of the stereotype that women are emotional and irrational. People think that women can't be trusted to make important executive decisions, business wise at least. I don't think that women dislike to be CEO's because I know women like to be in charge and in control of situations that are important to them. I think if a woman has the passion and know how to become a CEO they can do so successfully. Of course not all women are cut out to be a CEO because it takes specific characteristics in order to be a successful CEO. Not even all men are cut out to be CEO's. I think women still have a harder time moving up in the work place because of the sexist stereotypes in society.
ReplyDeleteI believe many CEO's are men rather than women because there are still gender stereotypes associated with power. Many people think that women cannot be trusted making important, intelligent, and crucial decisions while men, on the other hand, can. In order to be a CEO, it is not about gender, it's about maintaining a successful business using experience, education, intelligence, time, effort. Therefore, women are just as capable of becoming a CEO as any male. The gender stereotypes are what's holding women back.
ReplyDeleteThis blog keeps the readers engage through active thinking. It is interesting how a CEO males succeed and CEOs can be characterized easily unlike women. Although women are very strong individuals that know what they want, society can label women as weak and they don’t have successful qualities in the business world. Unfortunately, we don’t have a perfect society with gender equality. It think that women are as smart as men and they can be successful as well. Even though there are less opportunities for women to compete with men in the business world, there are some exceptions and inequality can be changed.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, i never really knew what a CEO was. i just know that it was a person who is important and has a lot of power. After looking up what a CEO was, it finally clicked in my head why almost all of the top CEOs are men. They say that there is gender equality in the world, but everyone knows there isnt. Im pretty sure that most of the male CEOs and "soon to be" CEOs will be offended if a woman takes their place. They will make them feel emasculated and probably make that womans work way harder than it is compared to the male. I feel that if once there is a higher authority like a president that is a woman, there will be more woman CEOs.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why women still haven't seen the top on a more equal basis with men. If I had to infer something, I'd say that there is still some sexism within most companies that make it difficult for women to promote up to such a high position. Many women who are worthy of being promoted could easily be passed up by a man with similar qualifications simply because he is a man. Another issue is the fact that women are the mothers of the family. Taking time off during labor can hurt her standing with a company. So there is another reason which seems to be more of a conflict of interest.
ReplyDeleteAside from the gender roles associated with power, and leadership, I feel another stereotyped role (that is alive and well) is also in this mix: the role of the woman "caregiver". Women are the primary caregivers of children and family, not because it's their "place" or because they are "best" at it but because it's a cultural norm that is overlooked. Unfortunately we are not seahorses, men do little caregiving, and because of this, women exit and reenter the workforce because of caregiving much more than men. Unfortunately, this can also affect management's view of women as they might expect women to be more "burdened" by caregiving, and decide to "spare them" the burden of more responsibility. It's frustrating and backwards… but on the bright side I am one man who is aware of this and will do my best to not perpetuate this.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are very few women CEOs because a large part of this society still believes that women are less than men, that women should be at home or have a smaller salary. There was also a study on why it was so hard for women to get promotions and become a CEO. It was because women have a to take time off when they are pregnant, nursing their newborn and taking their children to the doctors. Women lose time to gain experience and level up while men don't have to take time off. This way, men get promoted faster. I think this will change as time progresses. Women will make their way up the ladder and be on top sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteWomen are cut out to be CEOs. Women can have all the same skill sets as men, if they desire. I believe it is harder for women to obtain a job as a CEO, because society still judges people based on their gender. Men are typically associated with high power roles, just like a CEO. Besides, what women wants to fall into the "average CEO", with a receding hairline, and 3.1 children. I'm still laughing about that .1 child.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to pretend to understand women, or even most other men, but I do question the validity of some of the data in this infographic. Is Steve Jobs the only "high performing" CEO to drop out of college? What about Mark Zuckerberg, whose picture is on the title page of the article? And exactly what criteria must one meet to be deemed "high performing"? Ultimately, these types of statistics only serve to perpetuate the gender stereotypes that unfairly hold back so many women. The fact that we find the urge to separate and categorize a group of people, such as CEO's, into gender, marriage, age, only goes to show that we are still biased toward those characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that women are underestimated in the business world, but I also think that women are just not as interested in being CEOs as much as men are. In agreement with the comments below, I do believe that women do have other dominant roles in the world other than in business. Although women may have to deal with all of the sexist comments and label, we are capable of having a successful career as a CEO. If women wanted to be CEOs they would stand up and create opportunities instead of just taking what they can get. It may be harder for women to receive promotions, but if it were something that interested in large amount of women, there could be more women in the top 100 CEOs.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are so few women that are top CEOs because there is still workplace discrimination against women of power. Some people don't feel comfortable with having women in positions of power. I also believe that women sometimes do not like being CEOs because they are in the public eye, which means there are many pressure, such as personal and social pressures because they are under a microscope of the public eye.
ReplyDeleteWoman are sometimes more than qualified to become CEOs, but because of the social norm, most women are disregarded and put aside for less powerful positions. With the lack of women CEOs, it makes it impossible to have it become socially accepted and become the norm in our society
Well I am actually not sure why being a ceo is mostly a male dominated career. Now that I think about, it is a lot different from my major. In architecture all my teachers say that the profession is a male dominated career due to the lack of women. It is in the same field as construction so that may be why it is not as popular amongst women. I cannot find a logical explanation due to most business majors seem to be well balanced. Perhaps it has something to do with the thought that the world still hasn't moved out of the mentality that women are inferior to men in the work world.
ReplyDeleteAs women only started to pour into the labor market during World War II, there could not be enough time for them to take the same equal place with men. Furthermore, female CEOs are viewed as less authoritative the male CEOs. As most companies want the person representing their corporates to be strong and competent, and be tough enough to control the entire company and take out competitors, women might not be up to the job in today's way of thinking. However, all that is going to change as women receive more college education than men, there will be a lot of potential female candidates competing with males for CEOs.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, few women were CEOs is not because most of women were not able to handle the position. It represents the gender stereotype still exist in this society: men can do better than women. My friend, Qu Yan, was looking for a manager position last year. The company rejects her because they need a male to stand the position. They think male’s manage ability are better than female’s. That's ridiculous. and I think the women CEOs will increase in the future because female has the innate ability to manage. At home, they need to manage the house, to manage the time for everything.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to read the article how a CEO being successful. In the end it point why there are few women CEOs. It seems that female are stereotyped in the society. I think it is truth that female is weaker than male to some extent. However, the main reason is that female have different social obligation than male, which results in that female should do double work which seems have the same results as male. It seems unfair. However, the social expectation is different between female and male. Male are expected to take higher position than female. Male may get more social pressure than female.
ReplyDeleteI believe the inequality can be contributed to the fact that even though women's rights have came a long way this past century, but still have room to grow. The level of equality in the workplace has been improving each decade, but issues like these take time. Many of the "Old Boys" atop companies still hold sexist beliefs, and are likely less likely to promote a woman to CEO. Each and every generation has become more tolerant than the last. I believe that once our generation begins getting phased in at the top of companies and replacing the previous generation's leaders, the inequality gap will improve. These things take time, like the saying goes "Old dogs can't learn new tricks" it will take the new generations with new belief systems working their way up companies for us to see a real change in the amount of women CEOs. I believe the change will continue to happen, it just won't be over night.
ReplyDeleteCall me sexist, whatever, I'm not. That being said, I have a hunch that the CEO position has a lot to do with appearance. Strange to say considering women, in general, tend to be ascetically more pleasing (fact). How could this be you ask? If women maintain a better appearance there should be more than two female CEOs. Women are missing one weapon to be a stereotypical CEO: The suit. Yea, women can wear suits too, but theres something about a portly man with broad shoulders in a $3000 designer suit. A good suit can transform a man from a mere mortal into a monolith of corporate power.
ReplyDeleteThat might be a little farfetched so I have an alternate theory: women are, in-general, more empathetic. Empathy has no place in corporate America (fact).
It is a proven fact that even in today's "more tolerant" society, women are still not treated as equals. If a woman and a man are hired for the same exact position, on average, the woman tends to somehow make less money than the man. Furthermore, this sexism is carried out by current employers that bar the advancement of women in the workplace more than they do for men. This makes it very hard for women to get promotions and work their way up to CEO. The reason for this, which is ludicrous and insulting to say the least, is that women put too much emotion into their thought processes, and when you are running a company you should have as little emotion as possible. This world has still not realized that women are just as capable as men.
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to start this comment by saying statistics have to make more sense, how can a family have .1? I think they are so little women CEOs because many companies are scared to try the model.The woman CEO's that are there aren't extremely successful. For example the CEO of HP Meg Whitman has seen HP drop has a computer powerhouse, and completely failed in the mobile industry. Now lets compare her to Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple. Took over a company which at the time shot itself in the foot and he came in and before his death revolution the mobile industry with the iPhone and made a whole new category for mobile devices(tablets) and took their Macs and laptops to the top. They are a whole lot more success stories with men then female as CEOs. That is a fact, and until a woman can go into a struggling company and do what Steve Jobs did to Apple we will always see more men CEOs then women CEOs.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this article it appears that a majority of the CEOs out there are the middle age privileged men. Women had to fight for the right to be treated the same as men in the work place. It seems that people really find it easier to have a CEO that is a man rather than a women. It is not that women don't like to be in the top position of their company or they are not qualified to be the CEO. The thing is that men have been in these position since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Women are just as capable to be the CEO as a man but the thing is that men are given more opportunity than men. Gender contributes to this lopsided statistic is because of both the opportunities that men get above women and the idea that most people find it hard to have a female in charge of them due to the masculinity aspect of men.
ReplyDeleteI think that not many women are cut out to be ceos for a company. its not that there qualified but they may have to deal with more haters since they are women and men may not want women to be in charge of so many companies. Also the men that are CEOS are very privileged and are pushed from the start by their rich parents to become CEOS of a company unlike women who are usually pushed to other occupations like a doctor or receptionist. I belive also men can handle much more stress due to many women may fall under pressure.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began do read this article I didn't know that at the end of it it would have to do with gender and the stand that it has on the cooperate world. But to humor this argument, I feel like anyone can become CEO's. If that wasn't the case most of the ideas that came out in those major companies would have never came out. Women are just looked down upon being a CEO because of the way we see them around the house. Let us consider that they are the most reliable source when it comes to a house of both parents. This of course is an assumption, but in my household my mother was always the looked to to do what needed to be done. She attended all my sporting events, signed all the important documents, watched all my plays, motivated me to succeed further than her and my father, and still managed to make some pretty good food. What does this all mean? Women are reliable and can function while still doing more than one thing at a time.
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons why there are not many women CEOs because people feel that women are not capable of doing the job, women do not want that responsibility, or just because there not as many qualified women as there men. I believe the top reason is because it is hard for women to get such a high qualified job such as a CEO because were not given the chance to show our capabilities in the work world. Even though it is 2014 I still know that there people out there who believe women are better at doing domestic duties such as raising children, cleaning the house, and working to come home to see about her husband. As a CEO you have a lot of responsibility and out of the office and with women they also have a job normally to be a mother and a wife so people feel they cannot handle both duties. Women are some of the smartest and critically thinking people and I believe they should be given more a chance to show there abilities.
ReplyDeleteI feel women in certain companies are not necessarily looked down upon, but more so "incapable". There are certain expectations of most women such as, cooking, cleaning, motherhood.. etc.. that being the case it would seem that women have a different "title". I personally think a lot of men are good with business, but not so much with feelings. Women can be intellectually superior in both categories, not to say men can't be. But are women given the chance to show this? Women practice a lot of critical thinking as well a strong emotional consideration. This by far makes a huge difference. No one likes to feel someone approaching them from a business stand point and acting careless to the emotional health of people. Then there is also the question... why is this person so nice? is it manipulation? is it real feelings? or? This is a complex topic and I suppose there isn't one answer. Men and women are fully capable, but men seem to have more of an opportunity. Did anyone ever think that women don't want to be house wives all the time? What about working and taking care of the home? Why not share the duties instead of assigning them? Seems like a better plan to me.
ReplyDeleteIn the 21st century, there are so few top women CEOs because in this time and era it’s usually men who are running businesses not women. Men are running businesses because we as men probably feel that as women they do not have the background or experience as men do just like what the writer in this blog wrote down, “It seems that experience (not just education) has a lot to do with a CEOs capabilities”. People in the business world would mostly likely see women as people who cannot be trusted, who could lash out at anytime and it could tie to their emotions and how they are feeling. Gender plays a huge role in the business world and it shows as the article said, “Only two of the top 100 CEOs are women!” (ReadThinkb4uWrite) it clearly demonstrates that businessmen are chauvinistic and would like to see other men be successful rather than women being more successful than men. It will truly be a challenge for men who are CEOs of businesses to agree with seeing more women being CEOs of businesses and being successful as men are.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, gender roles playing a huge part in positions of power as they do to this day. That being said, it isn't going to change over night. People that worked their way up our now leaders, and when they were working their way up, men held powerful positions. Those who are now going out and climbing the corporate ladder know that, women too, are just as capable, if not more, than men. Those people just have not got to the position they would hope for- yet. Gender has nothing to do with how well someone knows on how to run a company- that just requires a keen brain. I believe it is only time before more women reach these positions. I'm not ruling out the fact that discrimination plays no part in this, but times are changing in the 21st century and so are the people.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'd like to say that I found this article and the picture very interesting because it gave me a very basic idea of what it took and how one became a CEO. Majority of those CEOs just went to college and received their Bachelor's Degree and they worked hard and managed their way to the top position. As for me, I would like to go to college until I receive my Master's Degree and see how far that can get me in the work field. Reading the article and analyzing the statistics in the picture gave me hope. It gave me hope because it says to me that anyone can do it and that you just have to work smart and work hard to be where you want to be.
ReplyDeleteI think there are so many men that hold CEO positions is because that the world was and still is male dominate. So, before these current CEOs held their positions, there were men back in the day that also held those positions. So when their time came up, they possibly just passed it down to another male to keep the gender bias continuing. But I'm really not sure why there aren't as many women that hold CEO positions versus men. I'm not taking away any credit from the men that hold those positions, I'm just saying that women are definitely capable of working just as hard as men do in the work field.
There is few women CEOs because it is hard for a woman to get promoted at a company simply because she is a woman. Women tend to have to work 20 times harder than men and still get paid less than a man does even if it's the exact same job. But, women are starting to dominate in education systems and will hopefully be promoted to higher positions in the future with more ease than they do now.
ReplyDeleteAs a female who plans to work for companies and big businesses, I know how hard it is to get up to a meaningful position. The reason why there is only 2 percent of female CEO's is because still in the 21st century men don't think we are capable of doing their work. Women still don't get paid the same and don't get treated the same. I think anyone man or women can be CEO's if that is what they truly want to be there is no gender for a job. If you do the work and have the skills you should be chosen by what you have done for the company and not who you are.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very interesting how most of these companies happen to be in California. In my experience California seems less restrictive socially on women than the rest of America. While I do admit that sexism does play a role in this statistic perhaps it is not just workplace discrimination behind this fact. An example of an external factor that would affect the role of women as CEOs is the fact that there are less women graduating as tech majors then men. We must remember that California is known for it's tech industry. Perhaps the problem does not lie within what society thinks of older women but rather what society expects from young girls in school?
ReplyDelete