Via Heart at Women’s Space/The Margins, an article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that reports:
…In a state that made history last year by becoming the first to have a female governor and two women serving in the U.S. Senate, women on average hold fewer than one in five senior-level executive jobs at the top 73 public companies. Records compiled and analyzed by the P-I also show that in the boardroom, just 14 percent of all seats at those companies belong to women.
Despite Washington’s progressive reputation and blue-state leanings, not one of those companies has women in the majority as executives or in board composition. Only Seattle-based Blue Nile has an equal number of men and women in senior management and on its board. …
… Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said many major corporations that want female executives on their boards are fighting for the same candidates.
“Ten years ago, public CEOs were on five or more boards. But today you would be hard-pressed to find public CEOs on three boards,” Schultz said. “Every corporation in America is searching for the same board members. We are all targeting the same people.”
But Catalyst, a New York-based national research organization that examines career advancement for women, said there are plenty of female candidates who can and are willing to move into executive positions or board seats.
Catalyst said women account for slightly more than half of all managerial and professional workers, and more than a third of Master of Business Administration recipients. The organization also said a lack of women in executive posts could hurt a company’s bottom line.
In a 2005 Census of Fortune 500 companies, Catalyst found that companies with the highest percentage of female corporate officers experienced, on average, a 35 percent higher return on equity and a 34 percent higher total return to shareholders than those with the lowest percentage of female corporate officers. …
Read the whole thing here.
