Ouster of Gap CEO Syngal Follows Trend of Women Being Fired Faster
Women serve fewer years in the top role and are more likely to be forced out.
Sonia Syngal’s ouster as chief executive officer at Gap Inc. after just 2 ½ years on the job follows a familiar pattern — female CEOs typically have shorter tenures and are more likely to be forced out than men in Corporate America.
Women in the role step down after an average tenure of 6.6 years, compared with 9.9 years for men, according to data compiled by exechange.com. The figures, which track CEO departures among companies in the Russell 3000 Index, are for the period from the start of 2017 through Syngal’s firing on Monday. The data, which cover 95 women and almost 1,500 men, also indicated that female CEOs were slightly more likely to have been forced out than their male counterparts, according to Daniel Schauber, founder of exechange.com.