Women’s progress to the top is stalling | Fortune

In late October, mortgage giant Fannie Mae announced its CEO Priscilla Almodovar was stepping down. The next day , defense contractor SAIC said it was parting ways with its CEO Toni Townes-Whitley. The following month, Walmart appointed its new CEO. and it was not chief executive of its international division , Kath McLay, who was thought to be a candidate. CEO exits and chief executive contenders not getting the top job are normal machinations of corporate C-Suites, but this year they’ve added up to a stark trend: the number of female CEOs in the Fortune 500, long on a steady climb, has plateaued, underscoring a broader trend in which corporate workplaces seem to be pushing women to the margins once again. In the new year, the Fortune 500, the largest U.S. companies by revenue, will have 54 women CEOs, one fewer than it had when the 2025 Fortune 500 list was published in June . Women’s momentum in gaining board seats has also slowed. Their share of board seats in the Russell 3000 and S&P 500 reached 30.3% and 34.3%, respectively, both records, according to The Conference Board. But the 0.1 percentage point year-over-year increase in women’s representation on Russell 3000 boards in the second quarter was the smallest uptick in over a decade, according to 50/50 Women on Boards and its data partner Equilar. At the same time, women’s share of new board appointments is declining. In the third quarter, women made up 22.5% of 448 new board seats in the Russell 3000, the lowest rate in more than ten years. “At this pace, the overall percentage of women on boards may begin to decline in upcoming quarters,” a Women on Boards report says . Ironically, part of the problem women are facing nowadays is that it’s no longer extraordinary for them to be in positions of leadership. But that has meant companies are deprioritizing-consciously or not-efforts that helped women get to where they are today. They may assume there’s a healthy pipeline of talent based on where we are today. Says Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair of board and CEO services at Korn Ferry , an organizational consulting firm: “If there isn’t a specific intentionality about making sure that spots are filled by women, then we could lose ground.” Slow-walking succession planning It would be easy to blame the slowdown in female leadership gains on companies removing or at least rebranding their diversity, equity and inclusion policies amid the Trump’s administration’s attack on DEI . And to some extent, that may be true, says Heather Spilsbury, CEO of 50/50 Women on Boards, a nonprofit focused on gender balance on corporate boards. “There was a lot of angst with how companies were going to move forward this year, especially if they had government funding. That included what their board makeup looked like and how they recruited for board members and how they recruited for leadership as well,” says Spilsbury. But at the board level, Spilsbury also places blame...

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