According to a study released in October by the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, women are grossly under-represented in executive positions and board seats. Of course, this comes as no surprise, but it’s good to see these statistics being officially and publicly released.
UC Davis Graduate School of Management and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives studied the 400 largest publicly-held corporations in the state of California to compile the third annual “UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders: A Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers.” While the study was limited to the state of California, I think it’s safe to assume similar results would be found in other states throughout the country.
Here are some of the key statistics from the report:
- Women hold only 10.4% of the board seats and highest-paid executive officer positions. That’s one woman for every nine men in the top leadership roles at these 400 high-profile public companies.
- 122 (more than 30%) of California’s 400 largest public companies have no women in a top executive position or on the board of directors.
- Half of the 400 companies have no woman among their executive officers.
- 47% percent have no woman in the boardroom.
- Only 13 of these 400 companies have a woman CEO.
These results paint a disappointing picture, but with time comes change. I have to hope that females will continue to find more leadership roles in large and small companies over time.
What do you think about these results?
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored ten books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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With regards to this silliness about a 10:1 ratio:
yes, but what are the current trends in our business schools and in corporate america? Most of the new hirees and business school (the appropriate acronym is BS) graduates are female (white females tend to be over-represented, by the way) and they are staking out the corner offices – and have been, if we are being truthful, since at least the 1980s. Most of these male senior executives are old fellows who will be gone in another decade or so – probably sooner. They will be replaced by white females, and when they are replaced, those same women will justify hiring other women on the grounds that, since they outnumber men in the professional schools of the land, they deserve to be hired ahead of the male applicants. It’s a funny thing about women: 30 years ago, we were told that it was important to show women achieving success in non-traditional jobs because young women needed to be shown that they could achieve success in those spheres; 30 years later, largely because of the gynocentric bent of our culture, young men are an increasingly dwindling percentage of professional school applicants and graduates – and I don’t see anyone (certainly not privileged white women) calling for more advertisements and media images to be shown that depict young men achieving success in the professions. Don’t buy garbage like this: look beneath the surface and you’ll find that young men are falling further and further behind and that the real gender crisis we have in contemporary american society is with our sons.
Not to be rude or anything, but who cares what the ratio is. The point of the matter is that people have jobs. Whether those people are men or women, there are thousands of people with jobs in these businesses. The poll only takes into account the board members. This makes up about 1% of the entire people employed by these companies. You can’t look at one thing to determine the rate over the entire system.
Blaine, you must be one of the misogynist MRA’s people who feel a female success = male failure. Stop spreading propaganda. I heard about you from the Southern Law Society. You anti-feminists are a menace to society but you like that, I’m sure. More over, make room for women. It’s tough that you boys have to compete with women now, but that’s life. Finally women are going after what men have for so long. Fair is Fair.
I am a MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT (Sr. Deputy Director) for more than 32 years with the National Productivity Council, Ministry of Industry & Commerce, Govt. of India till 31st JULY,2006 –when I took VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT.
FEMALES ARE CERTAINLY MORE RISK TAKING, MORE FOCUSSED, MOST DEDICATED + SINCERE IN THERE EFFORTS. Therefore, in many situations — Can be Strong and Good Leaders.
BUT — The Fields are DIFFERENT i.e. In HEALTHCARE, HOSPITALITY, EDUCATION (B’caz of Sweet Voice),etc The Females are Definitely GOOD LEADERS.
However, Situations like WAR, FIERCE COMPETITION IN THE MARKET, and such Other Fields –Bc’az of Overall Maturity + Market Knowledge — Men will out-manouevre Females.