Originally found at Financial Times, by Monika Hamori and Rocío Bonet.

While a “glass elevator” has helped a few highly capable women reach top positions in leading companies in recent years, the “glass ceiling” is still stopping the majority from advancing.

Data for 2020 show that fewer than 6 per cent of the chief executives of S&P 500 companies are women, while the proportion of female executive or senior-level officials and managers is just over a quarter. In 2019, women held fewer than 30 per cent of senior leadership roles in FTSE 350 businesses.

Advances are still being made: last month, for example, Jane Fraser became the first female chief executive of a big Wall Street bank when she took over from Mike Corbat at Citigroup. Yet such breakthroughs also underline the progress still required — progress that the Covid-19 pandemic and homeworking can make harder to achieve.

Companies should persevere, however, and not just because of a commitment to equality.

Continue reading the original article at Financial Times.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Journal.

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• Seung-Hwan Jeong, University of Texas at Austin
  
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