A Speck of Promise for Women in the Workforce

ZoomInfo
3 min readFeb 11, 2021

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By Stephanie Tonneson

To gauge the progress that’s been made for women in the workforce, we took a look at how many women are managers and CEOs compared to the overall workforce of each industry–using ZoomInfo’s database.

We also looked into how women may have had their careers impacted by the pandemic. The conclusion, similar to the data on diversity in 2020, is exactly what one might expect: Progress is being made, but there’s still a long way to go.

Women Employment Statistics

  • 40% of managers are women, but only 20% of CEOs are women.
  • 3:2 is the ratio of men to women for getting promoted to manager.
  • 4:1 is the ratio of men to women for getting promoted to CEO.

When we categorize the data by industry, the imbalance comes more clearly into focus. The Organizations & Nonprofits, Government, Education, and Healthcare industries come out on top, offering women the strongest opportunity to be promoted to manager or CEO, whereas Business Services, Manufacturing, Finance, and Insurance all rank towards the bottom.

At the same time, it’s worth noting that, again, while these numbers are low, progress is indeed happening. 2007 showed women only made up one out of 10 CEO roles in the finance industry, which means that number has increased by 40% over the last 13 years.

When it comes to how women have been affected by the pandemic, data from the World Economic Forum shows that women’s labor supply in August 2020 was 20% lower than it was in February, whereas men’s labour supply only showed a 9% decrease within the same time frame.

At the same time, ZoomInfo’s data shows that women are on the frontlines of the pandemic, with the workforce of the healthcare and retail industries–the two industries most affected by the coronavirus–coming in at nearly 80% female.

With the promotion gap closing ever-so-slowly, it seems that in the coming years, there will continue to be a gender imbalance (more prominently in certain industries) and 2021 will pose a challenge for women attempting to return to the workforce after COVID-19. Organizations & Nonprofits, Government, Education, and Healthcare Industries come out on top in terms of industries offering the most promise for women.

To browse through more go-to-market trends and 2021 business predictions, continue on to ZoomInfo’s latest Annual Report: Going to Market Smarter in the New Economy.

Do you have a (data-driven) story?

We’re always looking for ideas on unique ways we can use ZoomInfo’s breadth of data on businesses, the people who work there, and the tools they use.

If you have something in mind or questions we might be able to answer, we would love to hear from you: editorial@zoominfo.com

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ZoomInfo

We use millions of data points from our B2B intelligence platform to unearth trends in the way people buy, sell, and go to market. https://www.zoominfo.com