Catalyst Provides Fresh Research on Women’s Business Leadership

Catalyst, the top think tank for women’s workplace issues, relaunched its new website on June 12, 2008. The new site is packed full of studies, interviews and news stories on diversity and inclusion practices of major companies, women in leadership positions and the advancement of women of color.

Founded in 1962, Catalyst is a major nonprofit membership organization working with businesses worldwide to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business. At The Glass Hammer, we consider Catalyst to be a reliable source for research data on the subjects that women in law, finance and business find most important. They also host the Catalyst Awards, kind of like the Oscars for diversity and gender-inclusiveness the the workplace.

In a recent Catalyst study of more than 900 senior-level women and men from Fortune 1000 companies, research demonstrated that women and men have equal desires to be the CEO. The study, entitled “Women and Men in U.S. Corporate Leadership: Same Workplace, Different Realities?” examined some of the reasons that women in business were less likely to land the top job, despite equal ambition with their male counterparts.

This topic is especially relevant in light of the recent news that Lehman Bros. high profile female CFO, Erin Callan, was demoted from her position last week as the company cleaned house of top level management in the wake of falling stock prices, declining earnings and an announcement about the need to raise $6 billion in new capital. The Glass Hammer recently profiled Ms. Callan as a woman who had broken the glass ceiling, and we are sad to see her go the way of Zoe Cruz of JP Morgan, and other top women on Wall Street who seem to be scapegoats in times of financial crisis.

As the Catalyst data shows, women aspire to the top slot in the same way that men do. The same data shows that women are attending business school and law school in greater numbers than ever. They are also joining the ranks of large law firms and investment banks at the entry level, and have been doing so for years, so there should be plenty of highly qualified women in the pipeline.

However, TGH has documented the attrition rates of women at top investment and law firms, and such organizations have acknowledged problems in retaining qualified women. Seeing prominent examples of women like Ms. Callan and Ms. Cruz who had made it almost to the top slot at their respective financial institutions, only to be cut down in their prime, shows how that ambition for the CEO’s office doesn’t translate into reality for even some of the most promising women in finance.

In all fairness, however, it’s hard to say that the grim reaper on Wall Street discriminates on the basis of gender when the news has been so uniformly bad across the board lately. With a total of 4,000 dismissals at Morgan Stanley, 5,000 at Merrill Lynch, 7,000 at UBS, and 16,000 at Citigroup, it has been a dismal year for people in finance, both men and women. Still, the high profile firings of top women has made it less likely that we will see a female CEO of a major financial institution any time in the near future.

Still, Catalyst data shows news of some growth for women as leaders in the corporate sector. Recent gains have still been modest, perhaps due to the theory that women’s advancement suffers in a tough economy, when companies want to project an image of toughness, strength and confidence that has been stereotypically associated with male executives. A March 2008 study showed that women held 14.8% of Board seats at Fortune 500 companies, up from just 14.6% in 2006. Women lost ground in their representation among corporate officers of Fortune 500 companies, with 15.4% of those positions in 2007, down from 15.6% in 2006. Indeed, only 2.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs are currently women.

While this data makes women’s recent gains look gloomy, it does not take into account the increasing numbers of female entrepreneurs and women at the helm of start-up, small and mid-size companies, which can serve as incubators for Fortune 500 c-suite execs.

The key is for companies to continue priming the pump by identifying, developing and rewarding top female talent. The data clearly shows that women are aiming for the top job, so companies have to do their part in fostering progressive environments that embrace diversity and address work/life balance issues so that the most talented women can thrive.

In the meantime, all of the future female CEOs among our readers can check back with The Glass Hammer for coverage of up to the minute research reports and analysis from Catalyst and other think tanks devoted to providing cutting edge research and studies on women at work. Why? Because knowledge is power.