Fortune Global 500: Gender Diversity

By Raulin Cadet | Published March 12, 2024 | Updated March 13, 2024 | Topics: China, USA, Saudi Arabia, Global 500, Fortune 500, United Kingdom, Gender

Each year, Fortune magazine publishes a list of the world's largest companies. Which countries have their companies among the top 10 on that list? And how is gender distributed among these companies, by country? This blog post addresses these questions.

Definition: Fortune Global 500: It is the annual list of companies ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years, which typically end on or before March 31 of the ranking year. This blog article consider the year 2023.

Four countries have at least one company among the Top 10 Fortune Global 500 companies: China, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The total number of executive team members is 109, considering information from the top 10 companies' websites. Among them, 76.1% are men, whereas 23.9% are women. That percentage reveal that the top 10 Fortune Global 500 companies does not follow the same trend of overall international business where 29% of senior managers are women in 2019 and 2020 (report of Grant Thornton).

Considering the three Chinese companies that are among the top 10, only one woman is an executive team member, where 23 men is in the executive management. Only one company from Saudi Arabia is among the top 10, with all executive team members being men. Among the top 10 companies, one is from the United Kingdom, with 57.1% women in the executive team, exceeding the percentage of men, which is 42.9%. Regarding the United States, where five companies are among the top 10, 30.4% of executive team members are women, while 69.6% are men.

I should underline that hat for all top-10 companies of the Fortune Global 500, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position is filled only by men, even in the company where the percentage of women in executive management exceeds that of men. Gender steriotyping is considered as a significant explanation of this issue (Ref). 

I am pleased to share with you the following quote:

"A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everyone else."

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