Despite efforts at change, evidence shows that women are still underrepresented in corporate America and still earn less than their male counterparts.
However, several Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders in Westchester County are bucking the trend.
At IBM Corp. in Armonk, Virginia Rometty is the first female CEO in the company”™s storied 100-year history.
It was first announced in 2011 that Rometty ”“ then senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing, and strategy at IBM ”“ would succeed Samuel Palmisano as IBM president and CEO, and she assumed the post on Jan. 1.
At PepsiCo Inc. in Purchase, Indra Nooyi has served as chairman and CEO since 2007 after having served as the company”™s chief financial officer since 2001. She is consistently ranked among the most influential women in the world by the likes of Forbes magazine.
At ITT Corp. in White Plains, Denise Ramos was named president and CEO last fall, tasked with leading the company following a spin-off that resulted in three separate publicly-traded corporations. At the former ITT Corp., Ramos had served as senior vice president and CFO since 2007.
The successes of those three women and the many others who are at the helm of Westchester-based companies appear to be exceptions to the rule.
Following an annual report of women board directors, executive officers and top earners at Fortune 500 companies released last December by Catalyst, a nonprofit women”™s advocacy organization based in New York City, researchers concluded that women have made no significant gains in the last year.
Among the report”™s findings, researchers noted women held 16.1 percent of board seats in 2011, compared to 15.7 percent the previous year. Roughly 10 percent of companies had no women serving on their boards.
Additionally, women held just 14.1 percent of executive officer positions in 2011, down from 14.4 percent in 2010. Of those women in executive officer positions, only 7.5 percent were their companies”™ top earners.
“Companies have much to gain by defying assumptions and taking action to advance talented women,” said Catalyst president and CEO Ilene H. Lang in a press release.
Lang also said findings show companies with multiple women board directors routinely outperform companies with no women on their boards.
Allison Madison, president and owner of Reinhard-Madison Approach Staffing Inc., a White Plains employment firm, said the so-called “glass ceiling” is still intact but is weakening.
“In large corporations, I”™d say it”™s probably still somewhat challenging for a woman to break through but certainly not nearly as impenetrable as in years past,” Madison said. “Perhaps when before it was bulletproof, Plexiglass, now if you bang hard enough you can crack it.”
Madison said the thought that women don”™t belong in the business world is becoming increasingly obsolete. “Now for someone in my generation, the idea that a job wouldn”™t be open to me because I”™m a woman, that wouldn”™t even enter my mind.” As corner offices are increasingly occupied by women, chinks in the glass will be more widespread, she added.
Lately, Madison added, there has been a trend of women starting their own companies, to the point that new women-owned businesses far outnumber their male-owned counterparts.
Anne Janiak, executive director of the Women”™s Enterprise Development Center Inc. in White Plains, said demand for small business and start-up advising services has never been higher for her organization.
The WEDC, a nonprofit organization founded in 1997, became the U.S. Small Business Association”™s Women”™s Business Center for Westchester County and the lower Hudson Valley in 2003. It is also designated the Entrepreneurial Assistance Program Center for Westchester of the state Empire State Development Corp.
The organization offers a number of training programs, advisory services and networking events for women looking to launch or grow their own businesses, in addition to providing members access to a microloan fund.
“The need for our programs and services in the lower Hudson Valley keeps growing,” Janiak said.
She said the biggest challenge now is to spread awareness of the region”™s women-owned businesses.“A very important thing is to include women business owners at the table. They have to be included in the discussion. I think that”™s been missing,” she said. “I still think women are underrepresented in the field of small business ownership.”
Madison, in addition to owning Reinhard-Madison Approach Staffing, owns Candid Capture, a video interview service founded in 2009 and designed specifically for staffing agencies and corporate human resources recruiters.
When approaching local business owners about her service, “There were more women ”“ more of my peers ”“ than ever before.”
“I think things are definitely changing for the better,” she said.
