How many female CEOs are there in fashion?

Let's play a game. Close your eyes, reflect, and don't cheat by searching on Google. Now, tell me the name of a fashion CEO. We know—it’s difficult. Maybe names like Bernard Arnault or François-Henri Pinault come to mind, perhaps Marco Bizzarri, who was recently associated with Gucci. It's a niche topic; we already struggle to recognize creative directors with their constant game of musical chairs, let alone CEOs. If we narrow the category further to women, the challenge becomes even greater because the list of potential names shrinks significantly. If a name does come to mind, it's likely Francesca Bellettini, CEO and President of Saint Laurent since 2013 and Deputy CEO of Kering since 2023. Perhaps, following the latest news, you might answer Silvia Onofri, who, after successfully rebranding Napapijri, will become the new CEO of Miu Miu starting February 26. But what about the others?

Women in fashion: consumers, but not leaders

Women purchase two-thirds of all clothing and accessories worldwide and make up 85% of consumers. Yet, it is men who lead the fashion industry, both in design and in executive roles. However, women are present in companies, making sacrifices, developing winning strategies, achieving success, and earning recognition. Yet, for some reason, they stop at the door of leadership. When they do cross that threshold, according to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024  it is often in support roles like human resources, legal, or IT. The disparity in treatment, opportunities, representation, and pay between men and women, as well as among different ethnic groups, remains a major issue in contemporary fashion—although some progress has been made. In the past decade, female representation has increased at all levels, with women now occupying 29% of C-suite positions compared to 17% in 2015. According to the Donne e Moda: il Barometro 2024, report by PwC Italy and Il Foglio della Moda, in 2023, female board representation was 40% in the U.S., 47% in France, 34% in the U.K., and only 27% in Italy—less than one in three top executive positions. It seems that the closer one gets to the top, the fewer women are present, relegating them to lower ranks. According to data from Confindustria Moda and Sistema Moda Italia, in the Italian fashion industry, women are mainly found in lower-tier roles, making up 67.3% of office workers and 57.8% of manual laborers.

The struggles of female leadership in fashion

In the fashion industry, as in other sectors, discussions around diversity, gender equality, and the representation of different voices and ethnicities have become central. However, after some encouraging signs, progress appears to have stagnated. Female leadership at the highest levels still seems to be treated as an outsider in an exclusive club, predominantly made up of white men. And those who do make it in must navigate a difficult, grueling path where every achievement is scrutinized and dissected, mistakes are not tolerated, and there is little time to prove one's worth. “We tend to promote men based on potential, while we promote women based on what they have already accomplished,” explains Rachel Thomas, CEO and co-founder of Lean In. According to Fortune, companies often turn to women during times of crisis because they need a visible sign of change at the top, which increases their risk of failure. It is no coincidence that the average tenure for female CEOs in the Fortune 500 is significantly shorter than that of their male counterparts and has been for the past decade, with the gap only slightly narrowing in recent years. For example, in 2023, the average tenure of female CEOs in the Fortune 500 was 4.5 years, compared to 7.2 years for male CEOs.

Women at the top of fashion: where do we stand?

As early as 2010, Kering launched a program in support of gender equality, initiating several efforts to boost female leadership in top positions. Among these was the signing of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a charter set by UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact. But in concrete terms, what is the current situation at the top? The global luxury fashion giant—owner of Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, and Alexander McQueen—has just one female CEO: Francesca Bellettini, CEO of Saint Laurent and since 2023, Deputy CEO of the François-Henri Pinault group. Other notable female executives include Hélène Poulit-Duquesne, CEO of Boucheron, and Marie Leblanc, CEO of Courrèges, which is owned by Artemis, the holding company linked to Kering. LVMH, another luxury powerhouse, does not fare much better in terms of female leadership. Women CEOs include Delphine Arnault, CEO of Dior and daughter of Bernard Arnault, founder and president of LVMH; Séverine Merle, CEO of Céline; and Pascale Lepoivre, CEO of Loewe, and, as mentioned earlier, Silvia Onofri, recently appointed CEO of Miu Miu.

Gender equality in the workplace: a distant goal

Although women have made progress at every corporate level over the past decade, female representation is still far from adequate. The gender gap, intersectional gap, and fewer career advancement opportunities compared to men remain pressing issues. According to the Women in the Workplace 2024 report by McKinsey, focused on the United States, progress is expected to slow significantly in the long term, especially for women of color. At the current rate of advancement, it would take 22 years for white women to achieve parity—and more than twice as long for women of color. These statistics highlight how workplace equality is still far from reality.