Women as CEOs
Less than 20 percent of CEOs in limited liability firms in Norway are women, and the proportion has only been slowly increasing over the past two decades.
Women as CEOs
The overall trend
The proportion of women CEOs in limited liability firms has been steadily increasing, but at a very slow pace, and we are very far from gender parity. Slightly fewer than 14% of CEOs were women in 2000, compared to slightly more than 18% in 2023.
Women CEOs and firm size
Just as the proportion of women on boards is lowest among the largest 10% of firms, the proportion of women CEOs is lowest among the largest 10% of firms.
Listed firms tend to be larger than private firms, and they have a lower proportion of women CEOs. The proportion is still smaller than even in large private firms. Moreover, despite doubling over the past 20 years, the proportion is still in single digits. This is in stark contrast with the gender balance achieved on the boards of listed firms.
The age of CEOs
There has been an increasing trend in the average age of CEOs in both listed and non-listed firms. The youngest group and the one with the smallest increase in average age is female CEOs in non-listed firms. That aligns with the increase in female entrepreneurship. Female CEOs tend to be younger across the firm size distribution.