Despite comprising of a smaller share of the U.S. population than African Americans or Hispanics, the most represented non-white U.S. CEOs were of an Asian background. They made up 55 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies in 2024. By comparison, 11 percent of CEOs at the time were African American. The rise of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) Investments in ESG have risen dramatically over last few years. In November 2023 there were approximately 480 billion U.S. dollars in ESG ETF assets worldwide, compared to 16 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. ESG measures were put in place to encourage companies to act responsibly, with the leading reason for ESG investing stated to be brand and reputation according to managers and asset owners. Gender diversity With the general acceptance of ESG in larger companies, there has still been a significant employment gap of women working in senior positions. For example, the share of women working as a partner or principal at EY, one of the largest accounting firms in the world, was just only 28 percent in 2023.

According to a global software developer survey in 2022, the vast majority of developers are males, accounting for 91.88 percent of all respondents. Female developers amounted to only five percent of all respondents, demonstrating the male-dominating reality of software development jobs.

Gender imbalance in the tech industry
The tech industry has an overwhelming gender imbalance, in which women at leading tech companies tend to be the minority. Consider Dell’s workforce and Intel’s workforce as an example. In both leading tech companies, women make up only around 30 percent of the workforce. Computing related positions in the United States vary on gender breakdown, with computer hardware engineers ranking the lowest in terms of gender diversity as of late.

Diversity & inclusion initiatives
When tech industry CEOs and founders were asked whether diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives were effective, half indicated that they were not effective. This comes at an interesting time, especially given the overall gender imbalance in the tech industry. Not to mention, the majority of senior management positions within the IT industry are dominated by men. Diversity and inclusion initiatives could help to resolve workplace harassment and unequal treatment that many female executives experience within the tech industry today.