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Jul. 27--Only 13 percent of the corporate officers at Fortune 500 companies in Florida are women, according to a new census study by Catalyst, a research organization based in New York. That's 27 out of 208 top executive positions in Florida companies.
Nationally, women hold 16.4 percent of corporate officer positions, up just 0.7 percentage points from 2002. At that rate, it could take 40 years for women to achieve parity with men in corporate officer positions, according to a 2005 census study released Wednesday. "Progress has almost come to a standstill," the report says.
"It's certainly disappointing it's not going faster, " said Susan Nierenberg, spokeswoman for Catalyst.
The statistic is part of a 10-year continuing study of female corporate officers and executives in the largest U.S. public companies. Catalyst defines corporate officers as those who are board-elected or board-appointed.
The good news for women eyeing the corner office is that 9.4 percent of "clout titles" -- those higher than vice president -- were women in 2005 compared with 7.9 percent in 2002. In South Florida, Catalyst reports only four Fortune 500 companies that had women corporate officers in 2005: Office Depot, Ryder System, FPL Group and Lennar Corp. Two others, AutoNation Inc. in Fort Lauderdale and World Fuel Services Corp. in Miami, did not have any women in corporate officer jobs, the study says.
AutoNation said such studies are somewhat unfair.
"We have plenty of vice presidents. We have a board member who is a woman. Once we get past vice presidents, we only have four corporate positions," said Marc Cannon, spokesman for AutoNation, the largest U.S. retailer of new and used cars.
World Fuel, a provider of fuel to the aviation industry, has no corporate officers who are women, but the company's senior vice president over "people and performance" is a woman, company spokesman Francis Shea said Wednesday. "She's very much a part of the management of this company."
The study shows a failure for top companies to add women -- particularly black, Hispanic and other minorities, to the top ranks. Black women held 0.9 percent of corporate officer positions; Asian-American women held 0.4 percent, and Latinas held 0.3 percent. Men in similar groups held 4.1 percent of the top corporate jobs.
While companies tend to be better performers with women in their top ranks, according to Catalyst research, there still is gender-based stereotyping, Nierenberg said. "We have volumes of research that shows women of are just as effective as leaders, but men are perceived to do better as leaders."
Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6650.
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Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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