Women in the C-Suite: A Review of Predictors, Experiences, and Outcomes

Abstract

Despite modest progress, women remain significantly underrepresented in the executive ranks. To better understand the causes and consequences of gender inequality in the upper echelons of organizations, researchers in multiple disciplines have undertaken a growing and diverse set of studies. While this research has produced a rich set of findings, its breadth and equivocal nature makes it challenging to identify general implications from this disparate literature and the most compelling areas for future work. Thus, we undertook a comprehensive review of the executive gender literature to develop an integrated understanding of the factors influencing female executive representation, the experiences of those women, and the outcomes associated with their presence in the upper echelon. We also leverage our review to identify four key areas — the centrality of information processing, contextual elements influencing behavioral outcomes, overcoming entrenched bias, and moving beyond symbolic representation — and multiple potential research questions that we believe will help scholars to continue to advance this important and growing line of research.