Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Women that underwent mastectomies find hope in Skims' nipple bra, financier Tammy Murphy eyes a Senate bid, and female CEOs got a record high share of open jobs last year. Have a thoughtful Thursday.
- Turnover report. Fortune (and the Broadsheet) keep close tabs on the number of female CEOs in the Fortune 500—but sometimes it's helpful to take a look at a broader universe of businesses. New data that the Conference Board (in partnership with Heidrick & Struggles and the ESG data analytics firm ESGAUGE) shared exclusively with Fortune does just that.
Among Russell 3000 companies, the appointment of women CEOs reached a record high of 45 chief executives, or 12.1% of new appointments in 2022. That's a lower share than in smaller universes like the S&P 500, where women CEOs accounted for 17.5% of successions in 2022. Over the past two decades, the Russell rate of female CEO hires averages out to 6.8%. Women hold only 6.6% of Russell 3000 CEO jobs in total, compared to about 10% in the Fortune 500.
The Russell 3000 is a stock index that includes the top 3,000 publicly-traded companies in the U.S. With 2,500 more businesses included in that group compared to the Fortune 500 or S&P 500 (which rank similar groups of companies), it accounts for much smaller companies that don't make the 500 rankings and can fly under the radar.
Some of these smaller companies have faced less external pressure on issues of diversity and inclusion, so it's "not totally surprising" that female CEO appointments would happen at a lower rate in the Russell universe, explains Lyndon Taylor, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles.
In the Russell 3000, health care added 11 female CEOs, or 16.2% of all CEO successions last year, the most of all sectors. The consumer discretionary sector followed, with 10 new women leaders. Energy and information technology were the only sectors without any new female CEOs last year.
When CEO turnover peaks, these numbers could be a high point. Taylor expects "some ups and downs" in the coming years, but anticipates that greater board diversity will help maintain "positive momentum" even as companies retreat to the basics amid economic uncertainty.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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