(Originally posted on SVProjectManagement.com)
Not even close! Don’t take my word for it. I’m educated as a scientist, and I do everything I can to make fact-based decisions based on data, so here’s some data for ya . . .
According to the 2011 Catalyst Census:Fortune 500 Women Board Directors, Executive Officers and Top Earners and prior Catalyst Censuses, women have made no significant gains in the last year and are no further along the corporate ladder than they were six years ago:
- Women held 16.1% of board seats in 2011, compared to 15.7% in 2010.
- Less than one-fifth of companies had 25% or more women board directors.
- About one in ten companies had no women serving on their boards.
- Women of color still held only 3% of corporate board seats.
- Women held 14.1% of Executive Officer positions in 2011, compared to 14.4% in 2010.
- Women held only 7.5% of Executive Officer top-earner positions in 2011, while men accounted for 92.5% of top earners.
- Less than one in five companies had 25% or more women Executive Officers and more than one-quarter had zero.
This is truly a pity, especially for business people who want to make a profit. Consider this from our friends at Catalyst. Companies with three or more women on their board of directors, on average, outperformed companies with zero women board directors:
- by 84% return on sales,
- 60% return on invested capital, and
- 46% return on equity.