U.S. Chamber Hosts Inaugural Event for Center for Women in Business
Releases New Research Focusing on Women’s Participation in the Top Management Ranks of the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) MidCap 400 Listing
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Center for Women in Business, a project of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, hosted its inaugural event today to address the issues of identifying and eliminating barriers and creating opportunities for women executives.
“For 100 years, the Chamber has consistently promoted and supported the cause of free enterprise,” said Margaret Spellings, president of the Chamber’s Forum for Policy Innovation. “Successful businesswomen personify free enterprise and it is central to the Center for Women in Business that we support women as they work to achieve their professional goals and potential.”
In addition to keynote addresses from Sharon Allen, former chairman of Deloitte, and Ilene Lang, president and CEO of Catalyst, the event featured the release of a new study, Women in Leadership: A Look at Companies in the S&P MidCap 400 Index, 2000-2010. Done in conjunction with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and lead researcher and event keynote Dr. Catherine H. Tinsley, the study focuses on women’s participation in the top management ranks of the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) MidCap 400 listing—companies with $1 billion to $7 billion in market capitalization—in order to complement the extensive research that exists on female executive representation in Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies.
Key findings in the report include:
• Women make up half the workforce, but percentages of women in the top ranks are disappointing. Fewer than 5% of the top executives in 2010 were women, and in the ten-year period the survey covered, women in executive positions never exceeded 6%.
• Only three industries—media, life sciences, and retailing—had women in more than 10% of executive positions. On the other end of the spectrum, the automobile and components industry reported no women executives.
• Although the numbers of women in the top ranks are concerning, the compensation gap is narrowing. The survey showed that, while the gender gap in compensation had been significant throughout most of the decade, by 2010, the gap had closed. In fact, in the three industries where women make up more than 10% of top executives, women reported making more in overall pay than their male counterparts.
• Location matters for women CEOs. Breaking the country into four regions and looking at data from 2006 to 2010, women fared best in the West (3.9%) and the Northeast (3.6%), with lower representation in the South (2.2%) and Midwest (0%).
• Contrary to research that has suggested that women are recession proof, the survey found that the slow and steady climb of women executives came to a halt at the start of the global economic contraction in 2008. This trend affected younger female executives (between 27 and 39 years old) most acutely, with a decline in their ranks starting as early as 2006.
“Talent knows no gender and no bounds,” said David Chavern, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Chamber, and president of the Center for Women in Business. “We hope this study will help companies find tangible ways to better incorporate women into their workforce and develop them into the leaders of tomorrow.”
The full study is available here: http://ncf.uschamber.com/library/2012/03/women-leadership
The Center for Women in Business (CWB), a project of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, promotes and empowers women business leaders to achieve their personal and professional goals by increasing opportunities for women to serve on corporate boards and in the C-suite; mentoring women in the early stages of their careers or re-entering the workforce; and building a network of women entrepreneurs to encourage peer-to-peer networking, education, and professional growth.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.