It’s a great time for female finance leaders in the footwear industry.
Last week, three major shoe companies all announced that they had added chief financial officers to their ranks — and all of them were women. Crocs last Tuesday tapped Susan Healy as CFO and Wolverine Worldwide followed suit the next day, naming Taryn Miller to the role. Insoles maker Superfeet topped off the week with the hiring announcement of Kathryn McKenzie as CFO on Friday.
The slew of new hires is in line with upward trend of female representation in the CFO role across S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies. According to a Volatility Report released from executive search boutique Crist Kolder Associates in February, the percentage of female CFOs in these companies has nearly doubled over the past decade, going from 10 to 20 percent between 2013 and 2023.
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“I think there’s been a bit a bit of an awakening that diversity has really positive impacts on company performance, profitability, culture and employee engagement scores,” said Kirby Perkins, managing director at Crist Kolder Associates who co-runs the company’s Volatility Report program. She added that the influx of female CFOs across several sectors could also be a trickle-down effect from diversity mandates at the board level. And at the same time, the pool of qualified CFO candidates is finally in a place to offer more diverse options for the top finance role.
“We’re seeing the fruits of some very intentional programming in middle management and early leadership development programs that give rise to a much broader pool of diverse optionality for these roles,” Perkins said.
Retail and footwear lead the way
Consumer companies, in particular, are leading the way when it comes to female representation in the CFO role. According to Crist Kolder’s Volatilty Report, the consumer sector was the industry that had the most female CFOs between 2013 and 2023, with 30 women holding CFO positions in that sector in 2023.
In footwear, specifically, representation stands out.
“Female CFOs are highly sought after, especially in the footwear sector,” said Dana Levine, a partner at executive search firm Kirk Palmer Associates who specializes in fashion, retail and consumer experience brands. Data from Kirk Palmer found that the percent of female CFOs in footwear has grown steadily since 2022, with eight female CFO appointments already in 2024, year-to-date.
One reason for this outsized growth could be owed to the general rising power of the female consumer, who is driving the most growth to discretionary businesses like footwear and apparel. According to media research firm Nielsen, women will make up 75 percent of discretionary spending by 2028.
“It is women, many times, that are transacting at the end of the day,” Levine said. “And businesses that are looking to broaden and retain new customers are looking at women. The best way to do that is to bring in diverse executive leadership teams and to bring females to the table.”
More women in finance
The renewed push for diverse leadership at the CFO level is also galvanized by more women entering and advancing in financial fields in general. According to a 2023 study from Deloitte, the number of women reaching top roles in financial services is on the rise and expected to grow through 2031.
“I think you’re seeing a lot more women enter finance, whether it’s through accounting or more strategic finance roles,” Dayna Quanbeck, president and CFO of Rothy’s, told FN in a previous interview. She joined the sustainable shoe brand in 2019 as CFO and added chief operating officer to her title in 2022 before she was promoted to president in January. “I do think that you’re going to start to see more females come up the ranks. I know that there are a lot of aspiring CFOs. I’ve mentored some. I think it’s an incredible job for people that are curious and want to continue to grow in their careers.”
But despite the surge in female CFOs, gender parity still lags across the C-suite in general. According to data from leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates, while women account for 47 percent of the American workforce, they make up just 28 percent of executives in top leadership teams of the S&P 100. In contrast, men make up 53 percent of the U.S. workforce and 72 percent of executives in top leadership teams.
Luckily, the progress in the CFO role could potentially translate to more advancement for women down the line, as CFOs increasingly parlay their experience for broader roles in a company, such as president or chief executive officer. According to data from leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds, CFOs in 2023 were three times more likely to get the chief executive officer nod than they were in 2021. And lower margin businesses like consumer and industrial companies often look to finance talent more than other sectors when it comes to making these larger promotions down the chain. In footwear, that trajectory has been the storyline for Quanbeck as well as former Crocs CFO Anne Mehlman who was recently promoted to brand president.
“Seeing that there now is space for [female] CFOs to come in is exciting,” said Kirk Palmer Associates’ Levine. “Across the industry, we’re starting to see CFOs ascend into the No.1 seat. It hopefully will open up more gender diversity at the executive leadership team level across the board.”
