Apple among companies with dearth of female leadership
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 16, 2007 at 6:45pm
Nearly one in three of the 400 largest public companies headquartered in California—including household names Apple, Callaway Golf and Skechers USA—have no women at the top, according to a study reported by researchers at the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management.
At the other end of the spectrum, five firms, led by the Los Angeles-based Nara Bancorp, have women in 35 percent to 46 percent of their top posts. The third annual UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders found that 122 of the 400 surveyed companies—30.5 percent—listed no women executives or board members in their annual reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Telecommunications, electronics and semiconductors were the most male-dominated industries. Silicon Valley and Orange County had the highest concentrations of male-dominated firms.
Overall, women held only 10.4 percent of board seats and executive positions, virtually the same as the 10.2-percent figure reported in 2006 and 2005. Only three percent of the surveyed companies had a female CEO, also representing no increase from the previous studies. Other findings from the latest study:
° Women hold 9.4 percent of the 3,283 board seats in the 400 largest public companies in California, up from 8.8 percent in 2006.
° Almost half—47 percent—of the companies have no women directors and more than a third—34.3 percent—have only one.
° Women hold 11.6 percent of the companies’ 2,878 top executive offices, down slightly from 11.7 percent in 2006.
° Half—49.8 percent —of the companies have no women in executive offices and less than a quarter—21.9 percent—have two or more.
° Only three percent of the companies have a woman serving as CEO.
° Retail and finance industries had the highest percentages of women in top executive positions. Pharmaceuticals and media had the highest concentrations of women on the board.
° Three fourths—76 percent—of the telecommunications industry and two-thirds—67 percent—of the electronics industry had all-male boards. Similarly, 73 percent of telecom companies and 83 percent of electronics companies had all-male executive teams.
° The largest corporations, overall, have the most gender equity.
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MacFhearghaile Says:
The study is based of the false assumption that being a Woman is a qualification for promotion and or being hired into an executive position. Big companies promote on work records and performance, not gender. Before I retired I worked for managers of both sexes, at Apple, Ampex, and an R&D;company in Colorado called Sturman Industries. I recall no female managers worthy of note. Or to modify an old street saying, Results talk poor performance walks. My field was electronics, just an opinion from an old Celtic/Native American who’s been around the block several times, and resents seeing money being wasted to employ educated idiots on worthless studies.
Posted on October 16, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
dave Says:
Quick, fire Steve Jobs and hire some woman to replace him. It’s only fair! Hell, replace all of Apple’s executives, just to make up for the past.
Posted on October 16, 2007