By Yvette Mucharraz y Cano * and Karla Cuilty Esquivel **
The presence of women in senior management positions remains a minority. According to the “Women´s Power Gap” study by Andrea Silbert and Co -author (2025) only 48 women occupy the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in the 500 companies listed in the Standard & Poor index (S&P500), which represents just 10% of the largest and most representative organizations in the United States. Internationally, the panorama is similar: according to Grant Thornton (2024), only 19% of CEO positions are occupied by women. These data reflect that the inclusion of women in the workplace is still a challenge.
A relevant fact that Women’s Power Gap stands out is that all CEO women in the universe in question have reached that position to follow an executive professional career, none to own the company, while, among men, 6% (29 cases) are founders of their organizations. This shows the low presence of women in the formal business sphere on a large scale. Businesses leaded by women, in many cases they are usually micro and small businesses, partly due to the limited access to financing, due to the lack of guarantees or guarantees that support their businesses. Promote financial education and the importance of having a credit history and own goods (initially in co -ownership) could facilitate access to resources for the financing of their companies.
When studying the levels of training between women and CEO men, it stands out that women usually have more years of preparation and have occupied more positions before reaching senior management. This is partly due to the fact that the professional trajectory of women is often developed in “soft” areas, focused on human resources or marketing, while in areas of responsibilities linked to financial analysis or operations, men predominate. Frequently, these areas called “hard” can be a step, almost indispensable, to access the CEO position. Then this difference delays or limits women’s access to the General Directorate.
Traditional roles continue to influence professional specialization; For example: men in masonry and women in child care, which perpetuates the gaps. Questioning these cultural models is a social task that must be encouraged from the family and personal level, however, organizations can also modify their organizational culture promoting equitable schemes that allow men and women to combine work with parenting, home and care work of different age groups or by condition of disability when required.
A trend is observed in companies in which, from executive leadership positions, a reduction in women’s participation is presented on the organizational staircase, and only 30% of these positions are occupied by them, which reduces the probability of having an CEO woman, based on the Women’s Power Gap studio. This difference derives from disparity by occupying the positions they face the CEO position, that is, addresses such as operations, finance, lead a division, a regional market or presidency where women barely occupy 24%. These figures reinforce the need to generate processes of identification and promotion of talent that eliminate unconscious biases, with inclusive and objective metrics that favor the permanence of talent.
Another important aspect is to institutionalize mentoring programs or sponsorship For talent with high potential, especially to promote women to participate as much as mentors and in the role of minds. In these programs, family-work tensions that usually reduce the possibilities of professional growth and establish mechanisms of networking to make visible your talent. Therefore, organizations are called to promote spaces to share experiences and build successful referents within the company.
All these organizational efforts must be accompanied by a deep work of the women themselves to recognize know their potential because as Carolina Herrera mentions: “The woman only has one defect: she does not recognize how valuable it is.”
About the authors:
*YVETTE MUCHARRAZ AND CANO She is a professor of the Personnel Management Area and Director of the Women’s Research Center in the Senior Directorate of IPade Business School.
**Karla Cuilty Esquivel She is a researcher at the Women’s Research Center in the Senior Directorate of Ipade Business School.
The opinions expressed are only the responsibility of their authors and are completely independent of the position and the editorial line of Forbes Mexico.
Follow business information and today in Forbes Mexico
