Women are underrepresented in CEO positions, although perhaps not for the reasons people think.

The average age of a CEO is 55. Many are far older. You get to that point by being in management positions within an industry for decades. Outside of fringe cases, it takes a long time to become a CEO.

Obviously, that filters out some women due to them choosing family life over chasing job position above all else, as well as things such as in the past there being an even greater disparity in the difference between maternity and paternity leave than there is today (and it’s still not great today either!), as well as past sexist attitudes in having women in managerial roles.

IMO, there being fewer women in CEO positions is an indicator of sexism in the past, not sexism in the present.

Nowadays there are far more women in managerial positions, it’s not seen as weird anymore in the slightest, and that will naturally translate to more CEOs. It will just take time for that influx of managerial-position women to reach the CEO-level.

Will it be 50/50? Eh, probably not. The fact that women give birth means there will always be a not insignificant amount of women that take a significant amount of time out of work and prioritise family life to a greater extent than men.