Refutes claims that companies lower their standards to elevate women
BOSTON, May 20, 2025 -- Today, the Eos Foundation's Women's Power Gap (WPG) Initiative released a groundbreaking report analyzing the career trajectories of CEOs at S&P 500 companies. The findings confirm that women CEOs are just as, if not more, qualified than their male counterparts. While the typical path to the CEO role is similar across genders, the report reveals that women were 32% more likely to have taken an additional step serving as President before being appointed CEO.
"These findings make it clear that America's largest public corporations are not lowering standards to elevate women to the CEO position," said Andrea Silbert, President of the Eos Foundation. "In fact, women are more likely to be required to take an extra step serving as President, to mitigate perceived risk."
The report, Barriers and Breakthroughs: A Data-Driven Look at Women CEOs at America's Largest Corporations, highlights a steady increase in the number of women leading S&P 500 firms — from just nine in 2000 to 48 in 2025, representing nearly 10% of all CEOs. Encouragingly, the upward trend appears to be gaining momentum. Of the 64 new CEOs appointed in 2024, 11 were women — accounting for 17% of all new hires.
What's more, the study shows that plenty of women are in the CEO pipeline: A look at the executive teams of the 100 largest public companies in the S&P 100 index reveals that women currently hold 24% of key "launch positions" — roles with significant profit-and-loss (P&L) and operational responsibility, such as President, COO and as heads of divisions and regional markets. This experience is typically a prerequisite for the CEO role.
Unfortunately, the study found that those qualified women are still having a hard time moving into the top slot. "Given that women occupy nearly a quarter of these launch roles, we would expect to see similar representation among CEOs," said Silbert. "But the data tells a different story: for every ten women executives in the S&P 100 who meet traditional qualifications, only three are reaching the top. We call this phenomenon the 'final drop.' These women are fully qualified, prepared, and ready — but seven out of ten still aren't making it. We believe this drop-off is due, in part, to unconscious bias in the CEO selection process."
A persistent challenge continues to be the uneven distribution of women across executive roles. While it is encouraging that women now hold nearly a quarter of P&L-focused "launch positions," there is still significant room to reach parity — especially if women are steered towards operational roles as opposed to functional roles. Currently, women represent 76% of chief human resource officers and 56% of marketing and communications leaders — positions that are less likely to lead to the CEO suite. This presents a meaningful opportunity for companies committed to true meritocracy to ensure equal access to P&L career tracks for young professionals of all genders.
The report offers a set of actionable recommendations to ensure women's advancement continues. It urges companies to examine their organizational cultures and systems, eliminate barriers to merit-based advancement, and broaden access to leadership roles that lead to the C-suite.
Additionally, the report features detailed profiles of the 48 women currently serving as CEOs of S&P 500 companies. These case studies offer aspiring leaders — and those who support them —valuable insights into the qualifications, experiences, and career paths that lead to the top.
About the Women's Power Gap
The Women's Power Gap (WPG) Initiative, a project of the Eos Foundation, aims to dramatically increase the number of women from diverse backgrounds in CEO roles across all sectors of the economy. WPG collects and analyzes publicly available data to identify barriers to gender and racial advancement and advocates for systemic reforms that combat discrimination, promote inclusion, and provide equal opportunity.
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