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Same-gender succession dominates even in HR leadership—despite institutional diversity pressures—with external CEO networks and industry mimetic pressures driving the rare gender shifts that do occur.
Why it matters:
Gender shifts in executive succession are critical for advancing women into senior leadership, yet even in HR—the most female-friendly C-suite role—same-gender succession dominates, revealing how deeply embedded bias operates at the highest organizational levels.
- Only 9% of top management positions are held by women, while CHROs are the exception at 50%+ female representation.
- Executive succession with gender shifts is the primary pathway for increasing TMT gender diversity.
- Current patterns suggest internal diversity initiatives alone are insufficient to drive change at the executive level.
What researchers found:
- Same-gender succession dominates: 146 male-to-male cases vs. 116 male-to-female cases in CHRO transitions
- External pressure drives change: CEOs with board ties to companies with female CHROs are significantly more likely to appoint women (β = 0.565, p = 0.035)
- Industry diffusion matters: Higher prevalence of female CHROs in an industry increases likelihood of male-to-female appointments (β = 0.041, p = 0.064)
- Female predecessors open the pathway: Once a woman occupies the CHRO role, another woman is more likely to succeed her
How we know:
Researchers analyzed 469 CHRO succession events across S&P 500 companies from 2001-2018, using BoardEx, Compustat, and Thomson Reuters data. They employed two-stage Heckman probit models to control for selection bias, with robust standard errors clustered by firm to address potential non-independence.
What this means:
- For CHROs: Your appointment may depend more on your CEO’s external network exposure than internal diversity efforts—and your success opens doors for future women
- For organizations: Traditional diversity initiatives aren’t reaching the executive suite; external benchmarking and industry positioning are the real drivers of change
- For executives: Board relationships and industry leadership create powerful mimetic pressures that can override internal bias in succession decisions
What to do:
- Expand CEO networks: Actively seek board positions and industry connections with companies that have diverse leadership teams
- Leverage industry benchmarking: Use sector-wide diversity data as justification for gender-diverse appointments
- Focus on the “first woman” effect: Recognize that initial gender shifts create momentum—prioritize breaking through rather than gradual change
- Rethink succession planning: Apply the same diversity rigor to executive succession that exists at lower organizational levels
For more, see: Yoshikawa, T., Uchida, D., & Smith, R.R. “Female CHRO appointments: A crack in the glass ceiling?” The Leadership Quarterly, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2024.101799
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