Still An Uphill Battle for Women CEOs

Investing.com - The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements didn't make much of a difference in the C-Suite last year.The percentage of women who became CEOs in 2017 was virtually changed, according to a new report.Women represented 18.4% of the 993 replacement CEOS named last year, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The rate was 18.5% in 2016.In particular, 11 male CEOS left their firms because of sexual misconduct allegations in 2017. Of the seven replaced, four were women.The legal industry fared best, with 50% of the new CEOs named women.Getting to the corner office is even harder when it comes to the largest companies.Just 5% of S&P 500 companies currently have women CEOS. Included in that group, however, are some of the biggest U.S. companies -- PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) (PG).The number of women leading Fortune 500 companies is slightly higher at 6.4%.