Recently there was an article on the DiversityInc website (registration required) that indicated “women occupied only 16.4 percent of corporate officer positions in Fortune 500 companies in 2005,” according to a survey by the nonprofit group Catalyst. My first thought was that it is sad that corporations really don’t know what they are missing. Then I read the last line of the article and knew that women still roar!
For those companies that have figured out that having women at the top is a good thing, the Catalyst survey said, “companies with the highest percentages of women corporate officers have an average 35.1 percent higher return on equity and 34 percent higher total return to shareholders than those with the lowest percentages of women corporate officers.” I would say that’s taking it to the bank!