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The share of women holding top executive positions in the U.S. has grown steadily in recent years, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Women held 31.7% of top executive positions across industries in 2021, a near five-point increase since 2015, when it stood at 27.1%.
While that trend may give women’s advocates a cause for celebration on International Women’s Day this Wednesday, other data points point to a more troubling picture.
Despite making up 47.4% of the American workforce, women hold just 42.1% of all managerial positions. These rates have crept closer in recent years, but men still fill a disproportionate amount of these roles.
A state-level look shows a broad disparity between the states with the highest share of women in top executive positions and those with the lowest. Due to the U.S. Census Bureau’s methodology, respondents are categorized as either male or female, and no data is available for nonbinary people in positions of leadership.
In New Mexico, 46.1% of top executive positions are held by females, the highest share of any state in the country. Vermont (44.3%), Delaware (42.4%) and Montana (42.1%) are the only other states with rates higher than 40%.
These are the states with the highest percentages of women in top executive roles, according to the American Community Survey:
- New Mexico (46.1%)
- Vermont (44.3%)
- Delaware (42.4%)
- Montana (42.1%)
- Tennessee (38.7%)
- Maryland (37.9%)
- Maine (37.8%)
- South Dakota (37.5%)
- Oklahoma (37.0%)
- Mississippi (36.9%)
If Washington, D.C., were a state, it would be at the top of the list. Women make up 51.9% of the workforce in the district, where over half of top executives – 50.7% – are women.
At the other end of the spectrum, less than one quarter of top executives in Utah (24.1%), Idaho (24.1%) and Alabama (24.7%) are women.
Achieving a more even gender balance at the highest-paid levels could have an impact on the gender pay gap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women in the U.S. made 82.3 cents for every dollar paid to a man in 2020, a figure that rose by just 1.3 cents over the previous 15 years.
Representation in management positions is incorporated as part of the representation and power category within U.S. News’ Best States for Gender Equality ranking analysis, the inaugural iteration of which was released in August 2022.
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