Fewer Women Run Large Companies than Dudes Named John

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published 4 March 2015

An economist at the New York Times made a thing—a thing that will very likely make you angry because it shows that, "in many important decision-making areas of American life, women remain vastly outnumbered."

Called the Glass Ceiling Index, the series of bar graphs compares the number of men and women in various leadership roles. The first looks at female chief executives of S.&P. 1500 firms versus the number of male chief executives of S.&P. 1500 firms named John, Robert, William, or James. Result: There are four Johns, Roberts, Williams, or Jameses for every woman, no matter her name. And when you take the same elite group and test the old-man names individually, you get another shock: 5.3 percent of these CEOs are named John, while only 4.1 percent are women—not women named Abby or Margaret or whatever, but women PERIOD.

It's a fun and cheeky (and admittedly imperfect) concept that describes a maddening and totally un-fun problem. But at least they're doing things right in the Supreme Court, where there's one-third of a John for every lady.

Tell 'em RBG.

You should also check out:

It's 2015. Let's Step Away From the Glass Cliff

Is Doing It All the New "Having It All"? A Look at the Changing Face of Women's Careers

Political Scion Vanessa Kerry on Finding Her Own Way and Founding a World-Changing Organization

Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at Marie Claire. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.

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