Women Executives
Even though women constitute 40% of all executives and administrative posts
(up from 24% in 1976), they are still restricted mostly to the middle and lower
positions, and the senior levels of management are almost entirely 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 the corporate officers were women - even though women are 6l%
of all service workers.
Even more disturbing is that these numbers have "shown little improvement
in the 25 years that these statistics have been tracked". (University of
Michigan, Korn/Ferry International). What this means is that at the present rate
of increase, it will be 475 years - or not until 2466 before women reach
equality with men in the executive suite.
This scenario is not any 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 boards will not be achieved until the
year 2116 - or for 125 years. (The Feminist Majority Foundation News Media
Publishing Inc., 1995)
In 1980, only one woman held the rank of CEO of a Fortune 500 company. This
woman 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 s ...