Monday, Fortune released its annual Fortune 500 list. For the past two years, there have been 24 female CEOs on the list. Now, as Fortune associate editor Valentina Zarya notes, that number has decreased to 21 CEOs, a 12.5% drop in women-led companies on the list.
“A number of factors conspired to make 2016 a tough year for the women of the Fortune 500,” Zarya wrote in Monday’s The Broadsheet newsletter. “TJX chief Carol Meyrowitz dropped off after retiring earlier this year, handing the reins her second in command, Ernie Herrman. Ellen Kullman, longtime CEO of DuPont, also retired, though her departure was less harmonious.”
The real red flag isn’t the loss of specific executives, says Zarya—it’s the lack of new ones. “It’s notable that of the 29 new companies that joined the Fortune 500 this year, only one has a female CEO: Mary Laschinger of paper products and distribution company Veritiv,” she wrote.
Zarya also noted that women will take the helm at Progressive and CME Energy later this year.
Read the full list of female Fortune 500 CEOs on Fortune.com.
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