Thursday 12 January 2017

Factors influencing attainment of CEO position for women

an article by Dene Hurley and Amod Choudhary (Lehman College, City University of New York, USA) published in Gender in Management: An International Journal Volume 31 Issue (2016)

Abstract

Purpose
This paper aims to determine possible differences in causes or characteristics between men and women in attaining the CEO position in large publicly listed companies in the USA.

Design/methodology/approach
T-test statistic, correlation analyses and logit model were used to determine the role individual factors (tenure in management roles, age of CEOs, number of children, years of education) and the firm-level factor (number of employees, net income) play in determining the likelihood of having a female CEO.

Findings
The research results show that years of education, the number of children and the number of employees in the business play significant roles in determining the likelihood of having a female CEO. An increase in the number of children and years spent in education lower the probability of the CEO being a woman, while having greater number of employees raises the likelihood of having a woman CEO.

Research limitations/implications
The findings are applicable to only the largest publicly traded firms in the USA and are not applicable to mid to small publicly listed, private or non-for-profit companies or institutions. This research is a starting point for future research of women and men CEOs of small and mid-size publicly traded and non-publicly traded firms in the USA.

Originality/value
Prior research has shown that having children is detrimental for women in management positions; this research specifically identifies this problem for the CEO position. It also reveals that having more of education does not translate to getting to the CEO position for women.


No comments: