Fortune 500 CEOs: Is this good news?
April 21, 2009
by Amy Siskind
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Yesterday Fortune Magazine came out with a story titled: Fortune 500 CEOs: Women on the rise. The story posits:
But the news about women is positive: A record 15 female CEOs populate the latest Fortune 500.
Excuse me for being one to rain on the parade; but I find it hard to get too excited about this notion. After all, only 15 of the 500 CEOs are women – this means that 485 of the CEOs are men. So we get up to 3% and this is cause for celebration?
Being an ex Wall Street executive, I have also watched as any and all hopes of a woman taking the helm of a major bank have fizzled. I wrote a piece in October titled Wall Street without its three top women in which I highlighted the firings of one of my mentors, Zoe Cruz from Morgan Stanley, along with Eric Callan from Lehman and Sally Krawcheck from Citibank. So maybe I’m just experiencing some sour grapes?
After all, our friends at The Daily Beast seem giddy over this record number:
So the men of corporate America created the financial mess. Big surprise. Can the growing ranks of female CEOs help clean up the mess? The latest Fortune 500 rankings show a record number of women are running top companies. And while many of these women pull in relatively modest salaries, some of their companies are weathering the economic storm with relative ease. Our bet? A portfolio of the companies run by these low-testosterone executives could outperform the Fortune 500 next year.
And many of the folks at The New Agenda seemed pretty excited about this development as well – lots of “yeah’s”. After all, this is a step forward. Nina even posited the notion of a fund devoted to investing in women run companies. Maybe I just had too many crunch berries in my cereal this morning.
What do you think?
I would definitely consider investing in a fund of companies run by women. Not to say that some women executives can’t be just as self centered as male executives but short sightedness and self centeredness is a defining quality of most male execs. At least we should keep stats on an imaginary fund with women run companies. Because if they do turn bigger profits then that is something corporate males will listen to and change will happen quicker. Of course there are many examples of women who do nothing but ape male behavior to get ahead like Geraldine of Oxygen net.
I would like to see a study of the performance of those 15 companies since the women were on the board of directors or in a position of prominence before they were CEO’s. I would bet that these companies already have data where their companies outperform same sized companies run by men.
On the whole 15 is better than none, but it is still a dismal representation. I would also wonder what hoops these women had to jump through in order to be where they are today and their ages compared to the men.
I did read an article in the Observer [UK] just recently that stated the recession combined with sexism in corporations will reduce that female CEO number significantly. The following is a quote from the article:
“A separate report by PricewaterhouseCoopers found the pipeline of female leadership in corporate Britain could be irreparably damaged by the recession. Almost three-quarters of City professionals said women would use the downturn as a chance to take redundancy cash and make a new start.”
I think this is dismal representation. The only positive about women being 3% is that the banks are failing right now and our financial system is a mess, companies are going under. Can’t pin that on women, there aren’t enough of them to scapegoat.
I think we should support women run companies, but what I think is even more effective is supporting small woman owned businesses. We need more female entrepreneurs to go into business for themselves. It’s the path to economic equality. Some may grow into CEO’s of fortune 500′s, but even those who don’t will improve their standard of living.
Still no women CEOs at a financial services firm or investment bank in the top 500. Got some ways to go………..
15 of 500 CEOs are women – how depressing. This shows how much work we have ahead of us. I am shocked that anyone thinks this number is good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCTR1Gzu62A
These women rock!
[...] While the show is anchored by strong leads and supporting cast members (Kathy Fitzgerald virtually steals the show as the hilarious boss-loving assistant Roz), it gets its exuberance and sheer joyfulness by and large from its stunning ensemble. In addition to dazzling stand-alone dance numbers, almost every scene transition in 9 to 5 is accomplished through snazzy choreography coupled with a constantly revolving set and Dolly’s head-bopping songs. The result: a big, bonafied, Broadway company that’s staged to perfection; scenes are often busy, but never cluttered. I really did feel like I was watching the intricacies of corporate culture unfold onstage That culture – in which office workers are driven like minions and equal-opportunity employment is nonexistent — seems both familiar and passé. On the one hand, anyone who’s ever worked for The Man will feel for these characters; Violet’s “little guy” speech near the end will especially hit home in this recession. But for those who came of age in the post-feminist movement, watching women have so few rights in the workplace will feel as anachronistic as the funny Atari jokes that pepper the show. But lest we think the struggle that Violet, Judy, and Doralee take on in 1979 is irrelevant in this day and age, we can look no further than the 2009 Fortune500 list, which cites only 15 women as CEOs of America’s largest companies (a 3% representation). [...]
[...] we wrote last month, currently women compose just 15 of the Fortune 500 CEOs. Let’s say that another way: men compose 485 of the Fortune 500 CEOs. In a blog piece a [...]
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