The share of Fortune 500 companies led by female CEOs held steady at 10.4% over the past year.
On the 2024 Fortune 500, Fortune‘s 70-year-old ranking of the top 500 U.S. companies by revenue, 52 businesses are run by women. At the beginning of 2023, the share of Fortune 500 businesses led by female chief executives crossed 10% for the first time—and that stat hasn’t budged since. Meanwhile, the impact of the Fortune 500 has continued to grow; together, the companies on the list account for two-thirds of U.S. GDP with $18.8 trillion in revenues.
“Let’s just call it what it is: The pace of change is so glacially slow,” says Jennifer McCollum, CEO of the workplace gender equity organization Catalyst. Still, 52 female CEOs is more than double the number of women leaders who ran Fortune 500 businesses six years ago—and a 2,500% increase from 1998, when only two Fortune 500 companies were led by women.
Companies join or depart the list of Fortune 500 businesses run by female chiefs in a few ways: by hiring, promoting, or parting ways with a female CEO; or by joining or falling off the Fortune 500. The smallest company on the list this year had $7.1 billion in revenue. While not a reflection of the entire business world, the list gives us moment-in-time insight into trends at the very top of American business.
New and departing female Fortune 500 CEOs
Between the publications of the 2023 and 2024 Fortune 500 lists, eight companies departed this group. American Electric Power, the Reinsurance Group of America, and Commercial Metals named new male CEOs. Opendoor, the real estate business led by CEO Carrie Wheeler, fell off the Fortune 500 after two years on the list. Bed Bath & Beyond, led by women execs through its tumultuous decline, was liquidated, its brand sold to Overstock. And two drugstore chains, once a women-led corner of corporate America, got new CEOs—with Rite Aid parting with CEO Heyward Donigan ahead of its bankruptcy filing and Walgreens saying goodbye first to Roz Brewer, and then interim chief Ginger Graham.
At the same time, eight companies became women-led Fortune 500 businesses over the past year. Clorox, led by CEO Linda Rendle, rejoined the Fortune 500 after a year off the list. Voya Financial, led by CEO Heather Lavallee, leaped into the 500 as well. And six companies hired new female CEOs. At JetBlue, Joanna Geraghty became the first woman to lead a major U.S. airline. Heidi Petz took over paint business Sherwin-Williams. The travel giant Expedia promoted Expedia for Business exec Ariane Gorin to lead the business. Oil pipeline business Kinder Morgan named Kim Dang chief executive. This week, former Google Cloud exec Adaire Fox-Martin began her tenure as CEO of Equinix. And while announcing plans to split itself into three companies, Dupont named Lori Koch CEO of the remaining Dupont business.
Additionally, two Fortune 500 companies have announced incoming female CEOs who haven’t yet started their posts. Mining business Freeport McMoRan and and trucking company J.B. Hunt Transport have female chief executives slated to take over.
The exit of Brewer from Walgreens lost the Fortune 500 one of its very few Black female chief executives. Now, only two Fortune 500 businesses are run by Black women—TIAA under CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett and Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, which is headed by Toni Townes-Whitley. Townes-Whitley is a new CEO among this group; she took over from another female CEO, Nazzic Keene.
The highest-ranking Fortune 500 business led by a female CEO is once again CVS Health under CEO Karen Lynch, ranked at No. 6 on this year’s Fortune 500.
Progress stalls
While last year saw 12 new female CEOs appointed to run Fortune 500 businesses, progress is slower this year. That may be because executive turnover overall has slowed following a post-pandemic spurt of movement.
However, McCollum advises businesses and leaders to take three steps to ensure the pace of change doesn’t slow long-term: to fill the pipeline of qualified CEO candidates at senior manager and VP levels, to sponsor those women and support them in those roles, and to enact “gender allyship” at the leadership level.
“I’m discouraged overall,” she says, “but I am holding on tightly to the bright spots where we are seeing change.”
