June issue editorial by GUV editor Thierry Heles.
There are more people in a position of power in the US – chief executives, senators and the like – named John than there are women, according to a recent analysis by the New York Times. If that sounds familiar, it is because these kinds of statement have been true for years.
In 2015, for example, an analysis by the Guardian showed that CEOs called John, or Jean, outnumbered female chief executives by 17 to seven in FTSE100 companies. The problem persists internationally. An analysis by the New Zealand Herald in April found that men named John outnumber women four-to-one among chief executives.
If you were cynical, you could brush this aside and note that John appears to be a strangely popular name across the world. But of course, the blunt truth is that society really has not come that far in terms of gender equality. That reality might be…
