Female CFOs slowly on the rise

According to a new report on Bloomberg, the number of women CFOs increased by 35 per cent at the largest US companies in the past year, putting more female executives in top ranking positions.

There are now 54 women in CFO roles across the top 500 companies listed in the Standard & Poor 500 Index, up from 40 a year ago.

Although men still hold more than 90 per cent of CFO roles, the figures are a sign that women are increasingly breaking through into board level management. The data was compiled by Bloomberg Rankings.

Among the woman at high-profile companies are JPMorgan & Chase’s Marianne Lake, newspaper chain Gannett Co’s Gracia Martore, and Time Warner Cable’s Irene Esteves.

The index also showed 15 per cent of those in CEO positions across the top 500 companies were previously CFOs at one point. One double hitter is PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi, who assumed the post after six years as CFO. In all, women held 14 per cent of all senior-executive jobs last year, according to Catalyst.

Not surprisingly though, women who have made it as a CFO are disappointed by their single-digit representation.

“I thought by the time I was CFO of a public company, there’d be so many more than 10 percent,” Esteves told Bloomberg.

The full report can be found here.

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