At the start of this year, a slew of major retailers were searching for the right person to fill their chief executive roles. Most of those companies have now found that person—and in almost every case it was a man.
In recent months, major retailers like Gap, Stitch Fix, Victoria’s Secret, Kohl’s, the Vitamin Shoppe and the RealReal have appointed men to chief executive positions previously held by women. Others like Macy’s, VF Corp (which owns the North Face and Timberland) and the Italian denim brand Diesel replaced men with men at the top. And then there’s Bed Bath & Beyond. Sue Gove was chief executive of the home-goods retailer before it filed for bankruptcy in April. The company has since been revived by Overstock.com, which bought the bankrupt retailer’s intellectual property and assumed its name. This month, Overstock’s top executive, Jonathan Johnson, became chief executive of Bed Bath & Beyond.
In general, it is rare for a female chief executive to be succeeded by another woman regardless of the industry, according to an analysis by Catalyst, which works with hundreds of companies to advance the careers of women.
While the number of female chief executives had been trending upward in recent years, nearly 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies are run by men. Of the 86 retail companies in the Fortune 1000, 13 had a woman as chief executive as of July 2023, down slightly from the year before, according to the executive recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles.
Women are much more likely than men to work in minimum-wage jobs, such as home-health aids, child-care workers, cashiers and restaurant workers. These jobs pay as low as $7.25 per hour in some states.
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