Women crack glass ceiling slowly
By Del Jones
USA Today
Women continued to scale their way to the top jobs at the biggest companies, even in a sluggish economy that offered fewer chances at promotion.
Minority women, however, made little progress.
And for all women, it will take another 39 years at the current rate of progress before women occupy half of corporate officer jobs, according to Catalyst, an organization that focuses on the advancement of female executives.
Catalyst's 2002 census released this week shows:
• Nearly 16 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers are women, up from 12.5 percent in 2000 and 8.7 percent in 1995.
• The percentage of women holding so-called "clout" titles from executive vice president up to CEO increased to 7.9 percent in 2002 from 1.9 percent in 1995. Women who ranked among the five best-paid officers at their companies increased to 5.2 percent in 2002 from 4.1 percent in 2000 and 1.2 percent in 1995.
• Marion Sandler of Golden West Financial was the only female CEO of one of the largest 500 companies in 1995. Today, she is joined by five others: Marce Fuller at Mirant, Patricia Russo at Lucent Technologies, Anne Mulcahy at Xerox, Andrea Jung at Avon Products and Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett-Packard is the largest company with a woman as CEO, with 2002 revenue of $45.2 billion. Combined, the five companies had 2002 revenue of $129 billion, more than the gross domestic product of Ireland.
• Sixty of the Fortune 500 companies had 25 percent or more female corporate officers in 2002, up from 50 companies in 2000.
However, 71 of the 500 companies have no female officers.
Aquila, an energy company that ranks 33rd on the Fortune 500, is the largest company to have no female officer. Spokesman Ethan Hirsch says that's only because Catalyst caught them on a bad year. Sally McElwreath, senior vice president of corporate communications, retired last year. Energy companies have suffered since the Enron scandal became public a year ago. Aquila has cut 1,600 jobs this year, leaving little room for promotion among men or women, Hirsch says.
It won't take 39 years for women to fill 50 percent of executive offices, says Karen Garrison, the 53-year-old executive vice president of Pitney Bowes who runs the business that manages mailrooms at 1,400 other companies, a business with 17,000 employees and $1 billion in annual revenue. She ranks among Pitney Bowe's five top-paid executives, making about $800,000 in salary and bonus last year.
Five years ago, Garrison says, she believed it would take decades for women to catch up, but the last two or three years has seen a "remarkable rise" in talented women in their 30s and 40s, the perfect age to make their reach for the top.
"I can't imagine it will take (39 years)," says Deborah Reif, chairman, president and CEO of General Electric's Financial Guaranty Insurance Company. "If it takes that long, it will be very disappointing."
Asked how long it will be before GE has a woman among its five best-paid executives, Reif says "Soon, I hope." As one of 21 female GE officers out of a total 178, Reif says compensation is not as important as being "at the table, making the big decisions." She says that 50 percent of her staff is female.
Catalyst says one of its areas of focus is on top-earning officers.
Catalyst President Sheila Wellington says she is particularly discouraged by the lack of progress among minority women. In 2002, 1.6 percent of corporate officers were women and black, Hispanic or Asian American vs. 1.3 percent in 2000.
A common belief is that companies like to promote minority women because it's a "double plus" in achieving their diversity goals, Wellington says. But minority women "tell us it's a double minus," and the numbers don't dispute that, she says.
The percentage gains made by executive women in all industries over the last two years are unprecedented in a slow economy. Such gains were not made during the last recession a decade ago, Wellington says.
Wellington says she was encouraged by the number of large corporations promoting women to head their in-house legal teams. While the percentage of women making partner at law firms has been flat, corporate general counsels rose to 16.1 percent in 2002 from 13.7 percent in 2000, she says.
Garrison says it is notable that companies such as Pitney Bowes and Harley-Davidson, companies whose products are seldom targeted at women, have joined those such as Avon and Liz Claiborne among companies with 25 percent or more female corporate officers.
