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The purpose of this correlational quantitative study was to examine the extent to which gender
affects CEO dismissal reasons in S&P 1500 companies. The glass ceiling theory, role congruity
theory, ambivalent sexism theory, stereotype content model, and glass cliff theory provide the
theoretical framework for the study. The study aimed to fill the literature gap related to how
gender affects CEO dismissal reasons. The correlational quantitative study design utilized Chisquare and multinomial regression to examine the relationship between gender and dismissal
reasons. A secondary analysis of archival data detailing the reasons for the departure of S&P
1500 company CEOs between 1992 and 2018 was performed. The setting and sample include
U.S. publicly traded corporations included in the S&P 1500 from 1992 to 2018. The first
research question (RQ1) was: To what extent are female CEOs dismissed from S&P 1500 firms
for reasons different from their male counterparts? The second research question (RQ2) was: To
what extent does gender affect CEO dismissals in S&P 1500 firms? The research findings
demonstrated no statistically significant relationship between gender and CEO dismissal reasons
in S&P 1500 companies. The findings that a gendered difference does not exist between male
and female CEOs of S&P 1500 companies allows future researchers to focus on other
explanations of why female CEOs experience different treatment from their male counterparts.
Further research into the granular reasons for CEO dismissal will provide additional insight that
builds upon the current study.