It’s a shocking fact that in the Fortune 500 (the traditional business power-players), only 24—or 4.8 percent—of CEOs are female. And that number actually declined over the past year! For those of us who came of age during the “bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan,” smash-the-glass-ceiling era, it’s a disheartening moment.
But out of the disillusionment came a new group called Chief, which is dedicated to getting us closer to equilibrium at the executive level. Many of us believe that the more women who are in positions of power and influence, the closer we’ll get to true equality—and closing that pay gap!
“At a time when there is so much visibility for women in the workplace, to see that the numbers haven’t budged at all was a driver for us to put together an organization that had a goal to really bring women together at the top and create lines of succession for the next generation of women to get there as well,” Amy Kaplan, co-founder of Chief, has said.
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Kicking It Up a Notch
An image from inside Chief’s members-only clubhouse in Tribeca.
For women who are working hard to get access to the top rungs, Chief is offering support. Based in NYC, Chief provides a coworking space (similar to the WeWorks of the world), but goes several steps further. It’s dedicated to training already successful women up to be wildly so—and it’s just received an infusion of $22 million in series A funding. Much of that will be used to open additional locations across the country.
There are already more than a thousand members, coming from high-ranking positions at companies like Instagram, Walmart, and HBO. According to co-founder Carolyn Childers, Chief will cater to members’ “professional wellness.” Members will support one another in group discussions; they will meet in small numbers with an executive coach; and they’ll have access to other events and services that will uplift their professional standing.
Reports say the waiting list for Chief numbers over 5,000. Hopefully the new additional locations—set to debut next year—will bring in more of the fold.
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