Women are indeed gaining ground in the top spot at companies, but still fall well short of the rate of new male CEOs, according to a new analysis of CEO turnover data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Of the 607 replacement CEOs recorded in the first half of 2019, 131, or 21.6%, were women. That is up from 18.6% female CEO replacements in the first half of 2018. It is down slightly for the full year of 2018, when 22.5% of CEO replacements were recorded.
All years include data for the full year, except for 2019, which is through June.
Challenger tracks CEO changes from U.S.-based companies nationwide that have been in business for at least two years, with a minimum of ten employees. In many cases, replacement data is not available when a CEO departure is announced. Challenger updates its list with replacement CEO data as it becomes available.
