Female chief executives are more likely to be targeted by activism campaigns than their male counterparts, according to a new report that highlighted the unique challenges women face at some of the world’s biggest companies.

Women made up only 6.3 per cent of Russell 3000 CEOs from 2018 through 2025, yet 15.7 per cent of activist campaigns in this period targeted companies with female bosses, according to a report by The Conference Board shared exclusively with the Financial Times.

Matteo Tonello, head of analytics at The Conference Board and one of the authors of the report, said: “The percentage of those campaigns targeting female chief executives is twice as high as the rate of representation of female chief executives in the entire chief executive population in the Russell 3000.”