A 2016 article in Strategic Management Journal investigated why women have struggled over the last 20 years to obtain multiple high level positions in S&P 1500 organizations. Results of the article indicate that 47 percent of the labor force in the USA is women with 38 percent of managerial positions being filled by women. However, women only account for 8.7 percent of upper level positions in the USA in 2011, up from 1.6 percent in 1992. The authors note much of the increased presence of women in top management since 1992 stems from a growing awareness of firms to have women contributing in upper management. However, the trend has plateaued and despite increasing numbers of women in upper management, women today account for only about 8.7 percent of upper management – about the same as 2011. Research indicates while US firms are sensitive to providing opportunities to women in upper management, but once one upper level position is filled with a female, there is apathy towards hiring women executives for that respective firm’s upper level positions. To test this theory, the authors derived the hypotheses (simplified for this discussion).

 
Hypothesis: The presence of a woman in top management will be negatively correlated with other women holding a top management position in the same firm.

 
After running rigorous statistical tests, the authors concluded their hypothesis was supported, that the presence of a woman in upper management actually reduced the likelihood of another women serving in a top management position. Since, there has been relatively little increase in women in upper level management positions in the S&P 1500 firms over the last 5 years, and considering the research of this study suggest that trend may not change, it raises the question what actions need to be taken to provide more opportunities for women in upper management, especially after a single female already holds an upper level position with a respective firm. Unfortunately, the article did not provide any concrete reasons why this was the case, nor propose any insight of substantial substance on how to correct the situation.
Based on:
Strategic Management Journal 37: 98–115 (2016)