How Suite It Isn’t: A Dearth of Female Bosses
New York Times
Julie Creswell
December 17, 2006
The top business schools are producing an increasing number of female M.B.A.s, but women still make up just 16 percent of corporate officers at Fortune 500 companies. Analysts and executive women point to the dominance of men in boardrooms as a roadblock to women’s success. Vicki Kramer, co-author of the Wellesley Centers for Women study “Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance,” says, “Women on boards are the ones who pay attention to the pool of employees and succession planning and whether there are women and people of color coming up in those succession plans. A single woman on a board is typically viewed as a ‘token woman’ and is unlikely to drive female-related issues because she does not want to be seen as a one-issue director. Additionally, the second woman on the board only slightly changes the environment. The women sometimes feel the need to stay away from each other, worried that it will appear as if they are conspiring against the men on the board. Somehow, at three, gender goes away and they are much less concerned about being seen together.”
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