Catalyst's 2008 Census of Women in Business Leadership

Catalyst has just released their 2008 census of women serving on the boards and as corporate officers of Fortune 500 companies, and the news isn't encouraging.

• the percentage of seats held by women on Fortune 500 boards increased from 14.8% to 15.1% (848 seats out of a total of 5610)
  
• the percentage of female corporate officers increased from 15.4% to 15.7% (1312 female officers out of a total of 8344).
• the percentage of women among the Fortune 500 "top earners" declined from 6.7% to 6.2% (129 out of 2084 total)

The news for women of color isn't any better:

• women of color make up slightly more than one-fifth of the total number of female directors, but are only 3.2% of the total (up from 3% in 2007).

The EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership, released in October, actually showed declines in the number of women in executive management and board positions:

• the percentage of executive management positions held by women declined from 12% in 2006 to 10.7%
• the percentage of board seats held by women declined from 8.7% to 8.3%

EOWA director Anna McPhee, commenting on the results, said "At the time of the 2006 census we described the pace of change as glacial. In 2008 the results show that women's progress is melting away."