How the pandemic has affected working women

WOMEN IN BUSINESSCVSTIAAFTSE have broken three records of late. The number of female bosses at the helm of 500 companies in America is at an all-time high of 41. In 2021 Health, the country’s fourth-biggest firm by revenue, became the largest to be run by a woman, Karen Lynch (pictured). And for the first time, two giant businesses—Walgreens Boots Alliance, another chemist, and , a financial-services firm—are run by black women.In America and other well-off places businesswomen are making strides, according to ’s , an annual snapshot of female empowerment. Their share of board seats is rising in most places (though it has dipped since 2019 in progressive Sweden). Female boardroom representation surged in the Netherlands and Germany after they introduced mandatory quotas. But laws aren’t everything. The British government’s voluntary targets have also boosted the share of women on the boards of 100 companies, from 12.5% a decade ago to nearly 40%. Investors who care about environmental, social and governance factors are increasingly pressing firms to treat male and female employees equally.