Management-issues: Half of U.S. firms have no women at the top

Professor Constance Helfat via Management-issues.com about the new study by Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth that "found a complete absence of women executives in 48 per cent of the largest U.S. firms."

Author Constance Helfat, a professor at Tuck, estimated that the proportion of female chief executives would only increase from the current level of about 1.7 per cent to about 4.9 per cent by 2010 and 6.2 per cent in 2016."In order for women to continue to make and accelerate the sort of progress that our data indicate, they need to reach executive rank in the first place. Therefore getting qualified women into the executive hierarchy is critical," said Helfat.
Aggressive hiring and promoting of women also required an available talent pool, which was still a major issue that needed to be addressed, she pointed out."This has particular importance for the still low proportions of women in line positions, which are an important route to the top of the executive hierarchy.
Unless firms find ways to move women into line positions and retain them, the route to the top will remain much more difficult for women than for men," she added. Achieving the goal of getting more women into the top hierarchy would require commitment and leadership from America's most senior executive, she concluded.

Source: Management-issues.com by Nic Paton, December 1, 2006