There are only 24 women leading Fortune 500 companies

By Lydia Dishman

May 21, 2018

Amazon may be eating the world (or at least Whole Foods) and its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is confident that everyone will eventually work for him, but the newly released Fortune 500 list shows that the e-commerce giant isn’t at the top of the heap just yet.

 

That would be rival retailer Walmart, which nabs the top spot with an annual revenue in excess of $500 billion. Amazon ranked #8 behind CVS, among others, but #2 (behind Walmart) as the largest employer.

Despite its high rank, Walmart is not the most profitable of the bunch–that would be Apple. Walmart took the #20 spot on that list.

Even though the rollout of the Tesla Model 3 caused the company’s stock to drop earlier this year, Elon Musk’s organization made the biggest leap up the chart. It moved up 123 places to #260. Facebook’s troubles with privacy and fake news didn’t hinder it from moving up the charts, either. The social network rose from #98 last year to #75 for 2018.

This one maybe isn’t surprising, but it is depressing: There’s only one female CEO among the top 10. That would be Mary Barra of GM. Overall, there are 24 women leading Fortune 500 companies. Although Denise Morrison retired at Campbell’s Soup Company, Ulta, a newcomer to the list, has Mary Dillon at the helm. It’s easier to get skilled in Underwater Basket Weaving or Zombie Apocalypse Survival than it is to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company if you’re a woman.

 

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