While women are still underrepresented in top corporate jobs, there has been a small increase in the share of women executives in such positions over the past decade.
Only about 5% of the chief executive officers of 1,500 companies we examined were women. Among the tier of executives just below the CEO in terms of pay and position in the corporate hierarchy, 11.5% were women.
The number of businesses owned by women and minorities has grown considerably in recent years, particularly in certain industries, but based on revenue they remain on average considerably smaller than white- or male-owned firms.