The Numbers Tell the Story

Last year, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland published the book, Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution. The book's argument is simple - women are consumers, employees and leaders - in substantial numbers. They make up one-half of the population, and businesses that are serious about success should be serious about the economic vitality of women.

Wittenberg-Cox recently launched a website and blog, Womenomics, to provide a forum for an ongoing discussion of the topics covered in the book. The site is a terrific resource, but it was this article that caught my attention today: Want Gender Balance? Appoint a Woman CEO! It's the grid that introduces the article, the one that compares the number of female board members and executive officers in the Fortune 500 companies headed by women with 12 companies led by what are considered to be "progressive" men - it really drives home the point that a female CEO is likely to have an impact on the number of women serving on the organization's board. Bottom line:

• the 12 companies they selected with "progressive men" as CEOs had an average of 2 women on their boards and 1.5 women among their executive team.
  
• for the 12 companies with female CEOs, there were an average of 3.5 women on their boards and 3.3 women among the executive team.