Take a deep breath and read the names to yourself.
Annica Bresky. Carina Åkerström. Allison Kirkby. Eira Thomas. Pernilla Nyrensten. Biljana Pehrsson. Marie Inkster. Ebba Ljungerud.
And now Helena Helmerssonwho is stepping down after just four years as CEO of H&M.
She becomes yet another name on the list of women who have left the CEO job of a listed company in the past two years.
Now, not even 10 percent of the CEOs of Stockholmsbörsen’s major companies are women. It’s both lousy and upsetting.
“It has at times been a demanding time for me personally and I now feel that it is time to leave the CEO role, which of course was not an easy decision”Helmersson wrote in one press release which received a lot of attention.
“You need to have full energy to have this role and when I feel that the energy is not at its peak, it is not right”stated Helena Helmersson, who is handing over the CEO role to Daniel Ervér.
Yep, a dude. Of course.
“We need to continue to examine the patriarchy and question the structures in working life that favor men.”
Because an indisputable fact is that all the female CEOs who have left or been forced out of their post in the last two years have been replaced by a man.
The companies are undeniably quick to end up in old ruts after running out of women who (several studies show) are more often recruited to companies in crisis.
This is precisely why women tend to stay shorter in their positions than men, says Lena Österberghead of analysis at Carnegie in a analysis.
The gods must know that Helmersson has had to deal with crises.
The pandemic, harsh reviews of the clothing giant’s waste mountain in West Africa, union battles and tough reorganizations.
The CEO role is, of course, extremely demanding. But reports show that women are being questioned more internally, and also scrutinized more harshly in the media than men, says Allbright CEO Amanda Lundeteg in a comment to Chief.
“More and more people succumb to the pressure and become ill from stress, or choose to leave the management profession altogether.”
Boss has long actively pursued the issue of greater equality in working life.
Together with 10 of Sweden’s largest companies – including H&M in particular – we ran Battle of the numbers, a project for large companies that went from words to action when it comes to getting more women into operational management positions.
The development progressed for a few years, not least due to hard work from important actors such as Allbright, but the enormous difficulties we see in recruiting and retaining women in top positions in business are a serious backlash.
This is of course part of a – if possible – yet bigger question.
Managers’ surveys show time after time that Swedish managers feel bad. Recovery is at the top of the wish list. The puzzle of life is harder to put together than ever. More and more succumb to the pressure and become ill from stress, or choose to leave the managerial profession altogether.
The vast majority of people behind the galloping sick leave numbers are women, who are often forced to take on greater responsibility for children and the unpaid domestic work. No wonder the energy runs out.
We need to continue examining the patriarchy and questioning the structures in working life that favor men.
But we must also continue to shine a spotlight on the burnout pandemic that is draining our batteries and causing managers to leave their jobs.
Not because they can’t, but because they simply can’t take it anymore.
We can’t have it like this.
