Same Story: Fewer Women at the Top despite all the Studes

---

October 28, 2010, 4:54 pm

Still Few Women at the Top in Most Big U.S. Companies

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Even though women represent about half of the nation’s work force, most companies in the S.&P. 100 have no female or minority representation in their highest-paid executive positions, Calvert Investments concluded in a report released Thursday.

The report, “Examining the Cracks in the Ceiling: A Survey of Corporate Diversity Practices of the S.&P. 100,” found that 56 of those 100 companies did not have female or minority employees in their “C-Suite” or most senior positions, while only 14 of those companies have two or more diverse officers in those positions. The report found that white males represent 92 percent of the chief executives of the 100 companies.

“We remain disheartened by the glacial pace at which women and minorities are reaching the upper echelons of power,” the Calvert report states in its executive summary.

According to the report, women make up approximately 18 percent of director positions within the S.&P. 100 and just 8.4 percent of the highest-paid executive positions in those companies.

The report found that 38 percent of the 100 companies “demonstrate a robust commitment to diversity, both internally and externally,” with 30 percent of the companies giving their boards some oversight of diversity issues.

Among investment management companies, Calvert has long been one of the leaders in pushing for corporate diversity. “We are very concerned about the fact that women and minorities continue to be under-represented at the highest levels of management,” said Barbara J. Krumsiek, the president and C.E.O. of Calvert Group, Ltd. “Without a pipeline of female and minority executives in highly-paid, highly responsible positions, it will be very difficult to achieve board diversity, which is critical to strong governance and good management.”

WHAT DO you THINK? Why is this, since all the economics -business media has determined that it's safer and wiser to have women at the top? ...sandyo@passERA.org