Women in Business

The latest Catalyst research and other reports reveal that the situation of Women in business hasn't changed significantly during the last year...

• Only 15.7% of Corporate Officers in Fortune 500 companies are women
• Only 8% of the highest positions (chairman, vice-chairman, CEO, president, COO, SEVP and EVP) in Fortune 500 companies are hold by women
• Only 5% of most highly compensated officers in the US are women
• There are only 8 female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies
• There are only 17 female CEOs in Fortune 1000 companies
• Women in Top Executive positions earn between 8% to 25% less than male executives (Female managers' earnings now average 72% of their male colleagues')
• Not a single woman featured in Fortune magazine's list this June of the 25 highest-paid CEOs in Europe

However:

• Women account for 46.5% of US' workforce
• Women account for 47% of all Masters (including MBA) degrees awarded
• Women and men have equal desires to have the CEO job

Then...

• Why are women so persistently absent from top executive jobs?
• Why is still there the famous "glass ceiling"?
• Why "work-life balance" is mainly a women's issue?

It’s been said that true success lies at the intersection of passion and talent, and I used to believe that. However, since I got in the business world, in 1999, I realized that most of the times, a woman needs much more than passion and talent to get success...

This situation is really frustrating for us, women. We get to believe that no matter what we do, how hard we work, how intelligent we are, how brilliant, innovative, creative... we are; we can never reach the top!

I hope business world changes radically in the near future so that "women in business" will not be an issue any more.