According to a new study, women chief executives are judged on their performance with a double standard.
Russell Reynolds Associates, a executive recruitment firm, claims that women CEOs are either criticized for being too confident and ambitious or for not being confident enough.
Researchers found that while women accounted for only 6% of CEO resignations, they experienced significantly more (and negative) discussion when they left their role.
“Women in leadership roles are often expected to balance between being liked and seen as competent. This requires them to display ambition. But they also need to be seen as likeable. Which often means downplaying their ambition.” – Laura Sanderson.
Time for a Different Story used news coverage as a gauge to assess the biases faced by women CEOs. It also consulted experts to determine how women CEOs respond in boardrooms and investor settings. The report analysed over 20,000 articles that covered almost 750 CEOs from FTSE 100, S&P500 and Euronext 100 firms. RRA said that the stories were a reflection of commentary from a wide range of stakeholders including analysts, investors, executives, and policymakers.
Machine learning was used to categorize stories in accordance with a set of attributes that are commonly associated to CEOs. The analysis found that female CEOs are described as both having too many and not enough key leadership qualities.
Women CEOs were praised for their ambition. Women CEOs were more likely than men to mention ambition, but not always for the right reasons. Women CEOs are 2.1x more likely than men to be described both as being too ambitious and lacking ambition.
Hetty Pye is a member of RRA’s board, and one of the CEO advisory partners. She said, “Behind closed door, women CEOs tell us they are held to a different standard and receive more scrutiny than their male counterparts.” News reports can provide an interesting window into the way these biases are expressed in public discourse, but they’re not just a product of media.
Confidence is also a common theme. Researchers found that no woman CEOs in the sample were described as having the “right” amount of confidence. Researchers found that women CEOs were more likely than men to be described with a lack of confidence, while men are more likely to describe themselves as being overconfident.
Laura Sanderson is the co-head for Europe, Middle East & India, at RRA. She said: “Society expects women to be able to balance between being competent, which means displaying ambition, while also being likeable, often requiring them not to display ambition. Women are often ambivalent about admitting to their ambitions for the CEO role.
RRA’s 2024 Global CEO Report shows that women accounted for only 11% of all CEO appointments, and 6% CEO departures in the largest listed companies around the world. They receive more attention despite this disparity.
The words “woman” and “women”, as well as “man” and “men” are 17 times more common in CEO coverage than the words “man” or’men’.
When women CEOs left their roles, they received 1.7x more attention than men. The attention paid to female CEOs’ departures is also biased in terms of the sentiment. While 18% of articles about male CEOs were negative, only 28% of those on men were.
Researchers found that CEO descriptions varied by gender. Women’s personal qualities were often highlighted, while men were described based on their impact in business and the industry. Women CEOs are 27% more likely than men to be described with people-oriented adjectives, while men are 24% more likely.
The pattern is most evident when it comes down to innovation and inspirational. Men CEOs are twice as likely as women to be called “innovators”, while women are 72% more likely than men to be called “inspirational”.
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