Key takeaways:
- ‘Husband’ is one of the most-searched terms for female CEOs, showing a much stronger focus on their personal lives rather than their successes.
- People are 130% more likely to search for a female CEO’s family than a male CEO’s, reinforcing the stereotype that women’s identities are tied to their relationships rather than their leadership.
- Searches for a CEO’s education are 61% more common for men than women, suggesting that people place greater importance on the expertise of male leaders while overlooking women.
Women are finally finding their rightful place in the boardroom. Today, over 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women - having more than doubled in the past decade. From General Motors’ long-standing Mary Barra to Oracle’s Safra Catz, these powerful women have spent decades overcoming gender bias in leadership roles, slowly climbing the ladder before taking on the top jobs in industries that men have long dominated.
Yet, despite their achievements, women in executive roles often still have their successes overlooked. While men are seen as assertive, commanding, and confident leaders, women are often labeled as too emotional, controlling, or family-oriented — female leadership stereotypes that continue to shape public perception, as our online search behavior shows.
We researched executive search trends for the top 250 male and female CEOs to uncover the differences in how people search for business leaders depending on gender. The results show that while business matters lead when searching for male leaders, female CEO searches are more likely to focus on their private lives.
The top 10 Google searches for male CEOs
| Search term | Repetitions |
| Net worth | 199 |
| Salary of | 129 |
| CEO salary | 81 |
| Compensation | 74 |
| Education | 74 |
| Salary | 67 |
| Age | 65 |
| Partner | 62 |
| How old is | 38 |
| Is married | 38 |
When it comes to male CEOs, one question dominates the search bar: ‘How much are they worth?’ The term ‘net worth’ appears in the top ten queries for 199 of the top 250 male leaders, from Tim Cook to Mark Zuckerberg.
But beyond their wealth, people are most interested in how much they earn, with ‘salary of’, ‘ CEO salary’, and ‘salary’ all making the top ten terms, featuring 277 times.
‘Compensation’ also ranks highly, alongside ‘education’, suggesting that people aren’t just curious about what these executives make, but what it takes to match their earnings—what degrees and qualifications propelled them to the top, and how can you increase your odds of joining the executive club?
The top 10 Google searches for female CEOs
| Search term | Repetitions |
| Net worth | 186 |
| Husband | 160 |
| 104 | |
| Salary | 95 |
| Family | 70 |
| Education | 46 |
| Wikipedia | 32 |
| Bio | 29 |
| 26 |
With ‘net worth’ ranking in the top ten search queries for 186 of the 250 female leaders analyzed, our financial curiosity isn’t exclusive to male executives.
However, beyond wealth, the focus shifts dramatically. Unlike their male counterparts, whose searches are dominated by salaries and earnings, the top ten queries for women center around their personal lives. ‘Husband’ and ‘family’ rank among the top five searches, for instance, featuring 255 times across the 250 CEOs analyzed.
There’s also a strong interest in the social media accounts of women leaders, with ‘LinkedIn’ and ‘Instagram’ ranking third and tenth, respectively, suggesting searchers are keen to see how women leaders engage on both professional and personal platforms.
Male vs female CEOs: Do search trends reflect our leadership biases?
When it comes to male executives, money rules. Searches regarding their salaries, net worth, and compensation packages rank top — but women leaders don’t follow suit. People are 169% more likely to search for ‘salary’ when Googling male CEOs. Similarly, there’s a 96% gender gap between searches for CEO education and a staggering 1360% difference in compensation-related queries.
However, when it comes to women CEOs, business leadership and experience aren’t the primary interests. Rather than their personal achievements, the public is more interested in their personal lives. In fact, queries about a female CEO’s spouse are 216% more common than those about their male counterparts, and CEO family-related searches are 1650% more likely for women leaders.
Challenging female leadership stereotypes
These search trends suggest an imbalance in how we view male and female leaders. While men are recognized for their financial success and business credentials, we struggle to see women in the same professional light. Even with decades of leadership experience to their name, female CEOs are still more likely to be searched for their family ties than their achievements.
As more women break through the executive glass ceiling, it’s about time we put our outdated workplace gender stereotypes aside, alter our perceptions — and our searches — and accept that women have leadership qualities too.
While the growing number of female CEOs is a sign of progress, our search queries suggest that there’s still plenty of work to do before powerful women are recognized for the right reasons: their career progression, business growth, and personal accomplishments, rather than the family they come from or who they’re married to.
Methodology:
We analyzed Google searches for 250 female and 250 male CEOs, selecting them from Forbes and Fortune lists. The 10 most-searched terms for each CEO were chosen and categorized. The data is then analyzed to identify the most frequently searched keywords for each gender.