Women are taking a greater share of top corporate supply-chain roles, with retail and consumer goods businesses showing the strongest leadership pipelines, according to a new report.
Seventeen percent of chief supply-chain officers are now women, an annual
Gartner Inc.
survey found, up from 11% in 2019 and the highest proportion since the survey’s first edition in 2016. The 2020 Women in Supply Chain Survey, released Tuesday, gathered data from 177 shippers and supply-chain providers with more than $100 million in revenue.
But the path to top positions at those companies shows signs of erosion. Although women in 2019 accounted for 28% of supply-chain vice presidents or senior directors—increasing the pool of women who could be promoted into top roles—that share fell to 21% this year, the survey found.
Softening economic conditions ahead of the coronavirus pandemic may have contributed to that decline, with some organizations viewing gender inclusion initiatives as more of a human resources function “and therefore optional,” said Dana Stiffler, a vice president analyst at Gartner’s supply-chain practice.
As the pandemic batters the economy, “the concern is that in this moment…people who are midcareer or at an inflection point are at risk,” Ms. Stiffler said.
Overall, women accounted for 39% of the total supply-chain workforce, the same as in 2019, according to Gartner.
Gartner is working with an industry group on a similar survey looking at people of color in the profession, she said.
Supply-chain management has long been a male-dominated field, particularly at the top ranks. Last year, men supply-chain professionals earned on average 22.6% more than women, according to an Institute for Supply Management survey that found gender pay disparities across job titles, including C-suite roles.
Among those who disclosed race in the ISM survey, white respondents earned on average more than Black and Asian respondents, with the latter group reporting the lowest average compensation.
On the gender side, retailers and consumer goods companies reported women held 25% of vice president level positions, compared with 13% representation at industrial organizations, Gartner said.
Some of that disparity is because women are less likely to have a specialized degree in fields such as science or engineering, a qualification that 55% of industrial companies prefer for senior supply-chain hires compared with 39% of consumer businesses, Gartner said. Consumer and retail organizations also were more than twice as likely to have formal targets and specific goals for gender diversity, said Ms. Stiffler, which she said can help companies attract and retain diverse talent.
“When you go back five or 10 years ago, it was a desert there, too,” she said. “So it’s not just because women buy diapers. It’s because companies systematically went after it.”
Write to Jennifer Smith at [email protected]
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