<aFemale CEOs are unusual. 2 in a row at the very same business is (nearly) unusual

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It’s unusual that we get a female CEO. It’s even rarer to see another lady follow her into the C-suite. In the history of the Fortune 500, a female-to-female CEO succession has just occurred 3 times: in 2009, when Ursula Burns followed Anne Mulcahy at Xerox; in 2011, when Sheri McCoy took control of Avon Products from Andrea Jung; and in 2017, when Debra Crew ended up being CEO at Reynolds American, taking over from Susan Cameron.

Why is it so uncommon to see a lady promoted to the function after another female CEO’s departure?

Part of this, states Christy Glass, teacher of sociology at Utah State University, can be blamed on the high exposure– and accompanying analysis– that follows females into the C-suite.

Under pressure

In addition to stabilizing a lot of various expectations and fighting workers’ bias, some female leaders fear promoting females behind them might be viewed as “predisposition” or “having a feminist program,” according to Glass.

“These females are very knowledgeable about the examination they deal with,” Glass states. “To the degree that they end up being strong supporters for ladies, they deal with possible predisposition that they’re not as devoted to the company total which rather they have this equity program. I believe it’s troublesome.”

Research study likewise reveals that when a female or minority CEO takes control of a business, white male supervisors might in fact keep their assistance from female staff members, basically deteriorating the pipeline of varied skill that might one day take control of.

“They face this excellence requirement,” Glass states. “They need to be perfect due to the fact that of the level of analysis, and any errors are not just blamed on them, however in some cases blamed on females normally … I believe it’s actually tough for those prominent females to truly be singing supporters of other ladies. I believe they’re in a double bind.”

Asking the incorrect concern Individuals are approaching this issue from the incorrect angle, states Heather Foust-Cummings, senior vice president of research study at Catalyst, a non-profit studying females and work.

“I believe it’s an even more engaging concern– and it gets more to the root of what I believe the genuine issue is– if we ask ‘Why is it that guys are not establishing succession preparation and putting females in the CEO seat?'” she states.

And in numerous business, female CEOs aren’t even the ones preparing succession strategies. Rather, that work is up to the board of directors– much of which battle with their own absence of variety.

“One thing we spoke with a great deal of our participants is that board variety actually matters,” Glass states. “It mattered for their promo and it mattered for equity in general.”

In anticipating female CEOs to be the only ones who tap ladies, Foust-Cummings states, we’re just perpetuating the stereotypes female CEOs currently fight.

“It’s actually hard when a lady CEO is being held to all these requirements that the males are held to, and after that, on top of that, basically we’re inquiring to be accountable for bring a whole gender with them,” she states. “They’re the ones who are expected to promote and establish and have females prosper them– however we’re not asking the very same of guys.”