Underconfident and overambitious: Women CEOs face ‘double bind’ in the public eye

• Women CEOs are criticized as either too ambitious and confident or not confident or ambitious enough
• Women represent just 6% of CEO departures but experience significantly more discussion (and more negative discussion) when they leave a role
• Across the largest listed companies in Europe, the US and the UK, women represent 9.2% of all CEOs, showing that there is scope for organizations to further access the full spectrum of executive talent

25 February 2025, London – Women CEOs face higher levels of scrutiny, unconscious bias and double standards in public discourse according to research conducted by Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA).

Across the largest listed companies in Europe, the UK and the US, women represent only 9.2% of total CEOs, showing that there is progress to be made for organizations to further access the full spectrum of executive talent. *The report - Time to Tell a Different Story – uses news coverage as a barometer for the societal biases facing women CEOs and asks experts how women CEOs are responding in board and investor settings.

The report looks at more than 20,000 news articles covering almost 750 CEOs in FTSE 100, S&P 500 and Euronext 100 companies. The stories reflect commentary from a broad range of stakeholders including analysts, shareholders, executives and policymakers. Taken together they provide a unique window on the way we talk about high profile women CEOs.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

The analysis used machine learning to tag stories according to a series of attributes commonly associated with CEOs. It found that women CEOs are simultaneously described as having too much and not enough of key leadership traits in what represents a double bind.

There is particular focus placed on how ambitious women CEOs appear to be. Ambition is 73% more likely to be mentioned in discussions of women CEOs, but rarely for the right reasons. Women CEOs are both 2.1 times more likely as men to be described as too ambitious, and 2.1 times more likely to be described as lacking ambition.

Hetty Pye, member of RRA’s Board & CEO Advisory Partners and co-founder of RRA Artemis, said: “Behind closed doors women CEOs often tell us that they are held to different standards and experience more intense scrutiny than their peers. News reports provide a fascinating window into how these biases play out in public discourse but make no mistake, they are rooted in our society not the media. Knowing how these double standards show up in public discourse allows all of us to spot them in the boardroom.”

A similar pattern can be seen in references to confidence. In our sample no women CEOs were described as possessing the “right” level of confidence. Instead, they were 3.56 times more likely to be described as lacking confidence as men, while men were 1.25 times more likely to be described as having excess confidence.

Laura Sanderson, Co-Head of Europe, Middle East & India at RRA added: “It really is a glaring double standard – you just can’t get it right, you’re either too ambitious or too apathetic. Society often expects women in leadership positions to walk a tightrope between being seen as competent, which requires displaying ambition, and likeable, which often requires downplaying ambition. This contributes to women’s sense of ambivalence when it comes to owning up to any aspiration that they may have to take on the CEO role.”

The Positivity Gap

According to RRA’s latest 2024 Global CEO Turnover report, women represented just 11% of total CEO appointments and 6% of CEO departures at the world’s largest listed companies in 2024. Despite this gap, they receive significantly more attention.

Women CEOs receive 1.25 times more mentions than men, while CEO coverage overall is 17 times more likely to mention the words ‘woman’ or ‘women’ than ‘man’ or ‘men.’

Most concerningly, women CEOs receive 1.7 times more attention** when they leave a role than men.  This attention was also skewed in terms of sentiment – while 18% of stories around men CEO departures is negative, 28% of coverage of women CEO departures is.

Hetty Pye, member of RRA’s Board & CEO Advisory Partners and co-founder of RRA Artemis, argues that negativity around women CEOs can deter future talent: “It is an exceptionally lonely job because you are in the spotlight on your own in a very different way, and you are much more vulnerable because, statistically, this is a more perilous road for you. Straight away the backdrop is not attractive and that’s before you add in the levels of personal scrutiny and potential criticism.”

The Innovation/Inspiration Dichotomy

The research has also found that descriptions of CEOs differ by gender. While men are positioned around their business and industry impact, women’s personal attributes are more frequently under the spotlight. Women CEOs are 27% more likely to be described using people-oriented adjectives than men, while men are 24% more likely to be described for their task-oriented skills.

This pattern is clearest when it comes to innovation and inspiration. Men CEOs are twice as likely to be described as ‘innovators’, whereas women are 72% more likely to be described as ‘inspirational.’

The ideal CEO will possess both strong task-oriented and people-oriented skills, which come into play on different occasions. Assigning a gender-based lens onto leadership skillsets is harmful to all business leaders, regardless of gender.

Margot McShane, Co-Lead of RRA’s Global Board & CEO Advisory Practice and co-founder of RRA Artemis, concluded: “It’s time to fundamentally rethink our definitions of what it actually takes to succeed as a CEO and recognize that diverse leadership styles create more adaptable, innovative organizations. I truly believe that if a wider set of skills, rooted in proven leadership qualities, were more closely aligned with exceptional CEOs in today’s world, then more women would be attracted to the positive impact of the position.”

Diverse leadership is essential for building resilient organizations and fostering innovation. There is a complex road ahead to tear down barriers towards gender equality in the CEO seat, shaped by the following key actions.

• Establishing programs that deliberately prepare women for CEO roles early in their careers. Successful CEOs are those who have been exposed to large-scale P&L roles and assignments. Women are vastly underrepresented in roles that feed into CEO succession plan, such as COO, CFO and P&L leadership, curtailing this pipeline.
• Redefining what it actually takes to be a CEO. In a changing world, there is an opportunity to redefine the skills needed to succeed as a CEO, and question assumptions on success. The impact of the role cannot be underestimated – for a range of stakeholders – so when boards expand their views of what encompasses exceptional leadership, they create pathways for talented women and men who may possess those capabilities but may not fit conventional executive molds.
• Challenging the unconscious biases holding women back. Unconscious bias acts as an invisible barrier throughout women’s career journeys. Raising awareness of this bias and bringing it into open discussions is the first step in dismantling it and changing the conversation around women CEOs.

*ENDS*

Media Contacts

Russell Reynolds Associates
Sarah Carlyle, Marketing Director EMEA
sarah.carlyle@russellreynolds.com