Women in Leadership in California; Global Gender Gap Report

Here are a couple of recent research reports worth noting.

U.C. Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders (2008)

The U.C. Graduate School of Management has just released their fourth census of women directors and executive officers in California. Their results include the following:

• half of California's 400 largest public companies have no women in top executive offices,
• almost half do not have a woman on the board of directors, and
  
• nearly a third do not have a woman in either a top executive post or on the governing board.

Wondering how we fare in Ohio? I've not looked at statewide figures (our goal is produce our first statewide census of women leaders in Ohio in business and government this academic year), but central Ohio figures have always lagged behind the national averages. The public companies not included in the Fortune 1000 in particular often lack diversity in their executive suites and on their boards. And to date, only one Fortune 1000 company in Ohio has had a female CEO, when Kerrii Anderson served as the CEO at Wendy's.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2008

The World Economic Forum has also recently released their 2008 update on the status of women and girls around the world. Out of the 130 countries ranked, the U.S. came in 27th, behind Sri Lanka, Cuba and South Africa (Norway, Finland and Sweden lead the list) among others.