Having More Women CEOs Won’t Fix the Gender Gap

It’s a heartening sign of progress that, in a world where men continue to hold 95% of the top jobs at the biggest U.S. companies, there’s been a recent surge of money and attention going to startups founded and run by women. The past two years have seen an unprecedented number of unicorn valuations for companies with women in charge, with the upstarts Glossier and Rent the Runway nabbing big funding rounds in the same week this year. It stands to reason that there can’t be a more efficient way to target female customers—especially those who care about gender equality—than with companies run by women.

The logic goes something like this: A company founded by a woman, especially if it makes a product for women, will operate in a different and better way than one founded by a man. Both a Pew Research Center survey and a study by researchers at the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard have found that female leaders are viewed as more compassionate and empathetic, and people think they create safe and respectful workplaces.