Dive Brief:

• Employers who may be struggling to encourage female staff to take on more senior positions should consider hiring a woman CEO, according to a recent report from Weber Shandwick.
• This survey of more than 1,700 senior executives worldwide indicates that when women have a highly-regarded female CEO as a role model, they are more likely to stay at their companies and more motivated to strive to rise to the top themselves. However, women executives with an interest in the CEO position are especially in short supply, as they are significantly less likely than their male peers to want to be chief executive one day (23% vs. 32%, respectively).
• ​It also found that corporate and CEO reputations are largely gender-blind when it comes to contributing to overall company reputation and market value, and major differences between male and female CEOs leadership qualities are surprisingly few.

Dive Insight:

The Weber Shandwick analysis shows that the reputational “premium” for female CEOs is a heightened responsibility to inspire future generations to rise to the highest corporate ranks. Female CEOs break the glass ceiling and inspire the next generation of women executives to do the same, according to the report.

“Our research indicates that when women work for female CEOs, they are more motivated to strive to be corporate leaders themselves,” says Gail Heimann, president of Weber Shandwick. “These results lead to the undeniable conclusion that if we really want gender equality at the top, we must promote more women into CEO positions and do it now.”

Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, says the firm is pleased to learn from its research that when it comes to the reputation of a company and its market value, CEO gender does not matter. “Where CEO gender does count is in the war for female talent at the top, which is no small matter," she says. "Having more highly regarded female CEOs at the top helps to retain women at their companies.”