Why Real Change Will Only Happen When More Companies Are Led and Founded by Women

Last Sunday’s New York Times reported that, with the retirement of Denise Morrison, the former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, “the already small pool of female C.E.O.s decreased by 25 percent in the past year.” The New York Times went on to note that the problem is not raw talent or experience, it’s culture. Specifically, culture that perpetuates bias at a fundamental level and culture that fails to invest in female employees in a way that empowers them to rise through the ranks.

On the other hand, consider Jennifer Hyman’s recent Op-Ed piece in The New York Times. As CEO and Co-Founder of Rent the Runway, Ms. Hyman set the culture and core values of her company at the outset and is continuing to embrace those values by investing in all the people who make Rent the Runway a great company. Rent the Runway and other companies that invest in their people – men and women equally – repudiate the culture that has led to the dearth of female CEOs.

A recent white paper, co-authored by the serial entrepreneur and company-builder, Barbara Roberts, examines what is distinctive about how women approach entrepreneurship, create and define wealth and define success. Doing a deep dive into the success of eight of the “first wave of women entrepreneurs,” the authors found that one differentiator is their focus on “people – employees, vendors and customers – sometimes to the detriment of profit and personal wealth.” By focusing on “creating work environments, company cultures, benefits and training that help people develop to their full potential,” these entrepreneurs have strengthened their companies in a way that managing exclusively to the bottom line may not. They are creating a culture of loyalty, collaboration and shared responsibility, and they are developing the next leaders who will go on to run their companies and other companies.

While it is not impossible for a CEO to parachute into a company with an established culture and effect a game-changing shift in values, there is a clearly an easier – and likely faster -- path to developing a robust pipeline of the next female CEOs. Trailblazers Jennifer Hyman and the women featured in the Barbara Roberts’ white paper have shown us how. We can invest in the current generation of female founders by providing money, mentorship, access and connections and help them build the kinds of companies that will invest in people and foster the next generation of women in the C-Suite.