More women than ever lead Fortune 500 companies this year — but it's still not that many

A record-breaking 6.4 percent. 😒
 By 
Emma Hinchliffe
 on 
More women than ever lead Fortune 500 companies this year — but it's still not that many
HP and Meg Whitman make the Fortune 500 at No. 59 this year. Credit: Richard Drew/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Here's a milestone for the Fortune 500: more women CEOs than ever lead top companies in the United States.

Of the 500 companies that make up Fortune's annual ranking for 2017, released Wednesday, 32 have women CEOs. That's up from 21 in 2016, which was a drop-off from years' past.

Of course, it's still not that many—6.4 percent of the top companies' leaders, to be precise. Fortune started tracking America's top 500 companies in 1955.

The ranking is of the top companies in America by size as measured by revenue. The list spans industries with names like Apple, Walmart, and AT&T alongside energy companies and insurance companies you've probably never heard of.

The top company on the list led by a woman is General Motors, with CEO Mary Barra, at No. 8. GM is the only company in the top 10—or 20, or 30—with a woman at the helm.

Of the 32 women CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies, only two are women of color: Indra Nooyi at Pepsi and Geisha Williams at PG&E. No black women are among the Fortune 500 CEOs this year. (Ursula Burns at Xerox had made the list after she took over in 2009, but Burns stepped down as CEO in December and Xerox split into two companies in January.)

HP, IBM, and Yahoo are the only Fortune 500 tech companies with women in charge. Marissa Mayer just made the cut, with Yahoo at No. 498 on this year's list.

Here are all the companies with female CEOs on the list and their Fortune ranking:

  • General Motors, Mary Barra, No. 8

  • IBM, Ginni Rometty, No. 32

  • PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, No. 44

  • Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson, No. 56

  • HP, Meg Whitman, No. 59

  • Oracle, Safra Catz, No. 81

  • General Dynamics, Phebe Novakovic, No. 90

  • Mondelez International, Irene Rosenfeld, No. 109

  • Progressive, Tricia Griffith, No. 120

  • Duke Energy, Lynn Good, No. 121

  • Staples, Shira Goodman, No. 140

  • PG&E Corp., Geisha Williams, No. 157

  • Synchrony Financial, Margaret Keane, No. 185

  • Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Deanna Mulligan, No. 218

  • Ross Stores, Barbara Rentler, No. 219

  • Reynolds American, Debra Crew, No. 223

  • Reinsurance Group of America, Anna Manning, No. 246

  • Occidental Petroleum, Vicki Hollub, No. 278

  • Sempra Energy, Debra Reed, No. 280

  • Hertz Global Holdings, Kathryn Marinello, No. 296

  • CST Brands, Kim Lubel, No. 306

  • Veritiv, Mary Laschinger, No. 331

  • Campbell Soup, Denise Morrison, No. 339

  • Hershey, Michele Buck, No. 369

  • CMS Energy, Patricia Poppe, No. 419

  • Graybar Electric, Kathy Mazzarella, No. 420

  • Avon Products, Sheri McCoy, No. 444

  • Ingredion, Ilene Gordon, No. 456

  • Mattel, Margo Georgiadis, No. 474

  • KeyCorp, Beth Mooney, No. 479

  • CH2M Hill, Jacqueline Hinman, No. 494

  • Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, No. 498

Topics HP Yahoo

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Emma Hinchliffe

Emma Hinchliffe is a business reporter at Mashable. Before joining Mashable, she covered business and metro news at the Houston Chronicle.

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