A recent study done by the executive compensation data firm Equilar and the Associated Press has revealed that female CEOs earn more money than male CEOs, although there are far less CEOs who are women than men. Tiana Howard, a sophomore with a peacebuilding major from Virginia, felt happy for the hardworking women, “Because I feel like generally people are always down on women and that they can’t do well.”
Howard also said about the highest earning CEOs, “If more girls can get up there that’s good, but even if they don’t, as long as girls are trying and keep trying that’s all that matters.”The median pay for women CEOs rose to $15.9 million, which is 21 percent higher than last year according to the study, compared to the median pay of $10.4 million, which had lowered 0.8 percent from 2013, according to AP.
The study included 340 men and 17 women. Some students are skeptical of the data provided, because of the lack of CEO women and the large number of higher earning male CEOs. “It's hard for the female to reach high positions,” said Joanne Yeh, a senior studying supply chain from Taiwan. “Maybe they get the same pay that the male has but less is less, and there’s more men than women so there is less data for women.” The top ten money-earning CEOs consist mainly of men, except for Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. She earned up to $42.1 million, up 69 percent since she had been hired from Google in 2012, reported AP. “She took Yahoo when they weren’t doing well,” said MaKyla Goudie, a sophomore studying business management from Utah.
“Now they are doing phenomenal and that totally makes sense. She bought Tumblr, and she’s the one putting it back on the map. I hope that more women can become leaders like that.”Other high-earning women CEOs consist of Carol Meyrowitz, owner of TJX Companies, Margaret Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Phebe Novakovic of General Dynamics, Virginia Rometty of IBM, Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin, Patricia Woertz of Archer Daniels Midland, Irene Rosenfeld of Modelez International (maker of Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates, and Trident gum), and Ellen Kullman of DuPont, according to AP. Despite the difference in numbers, students look up to the representing women and feel inspired.
“I think for my own personal sake, I hope that more women can become leaders like that,” said Goudie. “The idea of it, in my head, it just makes me want to kind of like show the world that women are just as strong, but at the same time we can’t just rely on that we’re women. I want it to be like, ‘I’m good at it to be equal.’ I want women to be chosen because they look stronger.
I want there to be a very happy balance, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman it matters if you deserve it. It makes me want to work harder and that’s all.”Uploaded June 12, 2015