Executive Suites Lack Women
Although women comprise 40% of all executive, management, and administrative
positions (up from 24% in 1976), they remain confined mostly to the
middle and lower ranks, and the senior levels of management are almost
exclusively male domains. A 1990 study of the top Fortune 500 companies
by Mary Ann Von Glinow of the University of Southern California, showed
that women were only 2.6% of corporate officers (the vice presidential
level up). Of the Fortune Service 500, only 4.3% of corporate officers
were women -- even though women are 61% of all service workers.
More shocking is that these numbers have shown very little improvement
in the 25 years that these statistics have been tracked (University
of Michigan, Korn/Ferry International). This means that at the current
rate of increase, it will be 475 years - or not until the year 2466
before women reach equality with men in the executive suite.
Women Absent on Corporate Boards
The story is not much better on corporate boards:only 4.5% of the
Fortune 500 industrial directorships are held by women. On Fortune
Service 500 companies, 5.6% of corporate directors are women. The rate
of increase is so slow that parity with men on corporate board will
not be achieved until the year 2116 - or for 125 years.
Recently published studies purport to show that women are making significant
gains on corporate boards: a 1988 Korn/Ferry survey reported that 52.8%
of major U.S. corporations had women board members, up from the 42.9%
in 1986. But only 25% of the Fortune 1000 companies in 1986 had more
than one woman on their board, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In fact, there is such a huge overlap among women sitting on corporate
boards, that just 39 directors account for 33% of the 652 Fortune
1000 directorships held by women.
In 1980, only one woman held the rank of CEO of a Fortune 500* company.
She came into the top management by inheriting the company from her
father and husband. In 1985, this executive was joined by a second woman
who reached the top - by founding the company she headed. Today, there
is again only one woman at the top of a Fortune 500 company.
For African-American, Asian-American and Latina women, the situation
at the top is even worse. A 1986 survey by the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (as reported in Morrison and Von Glinow) showed that between
1974 and 1984, the percentage of African-American women executives grew
at a snail's pace of 0.7% of the total, to 1.7%. By comparison, African-American
and Latina women constitute about 7% of the total workforce.
The pay gap exists even at the executive level: a May 1987 report
by Nation's Business showed that "women at the vice-presidential
levels and above earn 42% less than their male peers." According to
a 1984 Wall Street Journal/Gallup poll, 70% of executive women
believe they are "paid less than men of equal ability."
Women Under-Represented in Business Education
Women have done somewhat better in gaining access to a business education:
in 1970, women comprised 3.5% of all MBA graduates; whereas in 1989,
33.6% of the MBA graduates were women. Women received 46.7% of all bachelors
degrees in business yet only 26.6% of the doctorates. At the most prestigious
business graduate schools - Harvard, Columbia, Mihigan, M.I.T. - women
make up a smaller percentage of the student body.
Despite the changes in the student body, the faculty and administration
of business schools remain predominantly white and male, not unlike
corporate management where women are grossly under-represented. Women
account for only 4% of business school deans and there are no women
presidents.
*Note: The Fortune 500 represents the largest industrial corporations.
The Fortune Service 500 is separate listing including only the service
industries such as retailing, banking, insurance, and finance.
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