Susan Arnold, who just stepped down as vice chair and president of global business units at Proctor & Gamble, could become the only out CEO of a FORTUNE 500 firm, and the 16th woman in such a role.
She would also be the first lesbian mom. She and her partner have two teenage children.
Not surprisingly, Arnold is on my list of Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America. More impressively, she has been on Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s most powerful women for five years, Bloomberg notes, and last year ranked 49th, above Queen Elizabeth II. (That might say more about the decline of monarchy than about Arnold, but still.)
The Wall Street Journal says, however, that Arnold may take time off for her family rather than jump into a new power job:
Ms. Arnold is among the most prominent gay executives in corporate America—colleagues say she neither hides nor makes a point of her sexual orientation—and she and her partner have a teenage son and daughter. “I think she’ll take some time off,” because “she really had wanted more time for family,” one Arnold acquaintance suggested. “She doesn’t need the money.”
Whatever her decision, I think it’s a huge sign of progress that the WSJ is reporting so matter-of-factly both about the significance of her rise to the top and about her family.
Good for her. It’s great to come across successful lesbian women who are proud of their sexuality.
There was recently a list of most influential gay and lesbian people in the UK and all I could say was ‘who?’