It’s rare to have a female CEO.
But it’s even rarer to see another woman following her into the C suite.
In Fortune 500 history, a female-to-female CEO succession has occurred only three times: in 2009, when Ursula Burns succeeded Anne Mulcahy at Xerox; in 2011, when Sheri McCoy took over Avon Products from Andrea Jung. and in 2017, when Debra Crew became CEO of Reynolds American, taking over from Susan Cameron.
So why is it so rare to see a woman promoted to the role after another female CEO leaves?
Part of that, says Christy Glass, a sociology professor at Utah State University, can be blamed on the high visibility — and accompanying scrutiny — that follows women in the C-suite.
Under pressure
In addition to balancing so many different expectations and combating employee biases, some female leaders fear that promoting women behind them can be seen as “biased” or “having a feminist agenda,” according to Glass.
“These women are acutely aware of the scrutiny they face,” says Glass. “To the extent that they become strong advocates for women, they face a potential bias that they’re not as committed to the organization as a whole and instead have this equality agenda. I think that’s problematic.”
Research also shows that when a female or minority CEO takes control of a company, white male managers may actually not support female employees, effectively weakening the pipeline of diverse talent that could one day dominate.
“They’re up against this standard of perfection,” says Glass. “They have to be flawless because of the level of scrutiny and mistakes are not only blamed on them, but sometimes they’re blamed on women in general… I think it’s very difficult for these high-profile women to really be advocates for others I think women are in double bind”.
Asking the wrong question
People are approaching this problem from the wrong angle, says Heather Foust-Cummings, senior vice president of research at Catalyst, a nonprofit that studies women and work.
“I think it’s a much more compelling question—and it gets more to the root of what I think is the real problem—if we ask, ‘Why aren’t men developing succession planning and putting women in the CEO position?'” she says.
And in many companies, female CEOs aren’t even the ones preparing succession plans. Instead, that job belongs to the board — many of which struggle with their own lack of diversity.
“One thing we heard from many of our respondents is that board diversity really matters,” says Glass. “It mattered for their advancement and it mattered for equality overall.”
By expecting female CEOs to be the only ones bashing women, Foust-Cummings says, we’re just perpetuating the stereotypes that female CEOs already face.
“It’s really hard when a female CEO is held to all these standards that men are held to, and then on top of that, we’re basically asking them to be responsible for bringing an entire gender with them,” she says. . “They’re the ones who are supposed to be promoting and developing and women succeeding them — but we don’t ask the same of men.”
CNNMoney (New York) First published August 16, 2018: 11:45 am ET
