‘If you take your foot off the pedal at all, you will start to stall’: Women in C-suite roles have stagnated, and the reasons go beyond the pipeline

The rate of women being promoted into senior executive roles is slowing down, and experts warn a shaky labor climate and dearth of professional infrastructure are further exacerbating an already obstruction-filled pipeline for women to become CEOs.

At the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Monday, Kelly Baker, executive vice president and chief human resource officer at financial services firm Thrivent, explained that there has been less of a focus on developing and recruiting women to join executive leadership. The slowdown is a byproduct of a frenetic environment that has deprioritized cultivating these leaders.

“I don’t think we can ignore the fact that there is a climate where organizations aren’t quite as focused,” Baker told Fortune Leadership Editor Claire Zillman. “If you take your foot off the pedal at all, you will start to stall.”

The Fortune 500 has 56 companies led by women, or about 11.2% of the list, up from 7.4% six years ago. However, women’s share of roles in both the C-suite and at the board level........

© Fortune