Catalyst's latest census finds progress for women at the top is steady but slow.

December 2002

Key Findings

The Catalyst Pyramid: U.S. Women in Business, 2002

F500 CEO:                                6
F500 top earner                          5.2%
F500 highest titles                      7.9%
F500 board directors                    12.4%
F500 corporate officers                 15.7%
Managerial and professional specialty
  positions                             50.0%
U.S. labor force                        46.6%

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment & Earnings,
January 2002; Catalyst, 2001 Catalyst Census of Women Board
Directors; Catalyst, 2002 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate
Officers and Top Earners

Note: Table made from bar graph.

The Buzz

Catalyst's latest research shows that progress for women in business leadership is steady but slow. Women continue to hold a small proportion of corporate officer, top earner, profit-and-loss, and CEO positions, according to the 2002 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the Fortune 500.

"It is our hope that our censuses will encourage companies to start tracking the representation of women in their own ranks," explains Catalyst President Sheila Wellington, "because at Catalyst, we know that in business, what gets measured gets done." We urge companies to track and analyze women's representation at key levels and functions. Metrics--measures of recruitment, representation, attrition, and promotion across all demographic groups--help organizations translate diversity goals into tangible practice.

In order to expand the knowledge base and encourage business leaders worldwide to focus on increasing the representation of women in corporate leadership, Catalyst has developed a census toolkit for organizations around the globe. We provide our methodology and coach our partners so that there can be statistics that are comparable across industries and geographies.

In 2002, Catalyst partnered with Australia's Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) to produce a census of women in Australia's top companies. EOWA found that women hold 8.2 percent of board director seats and 8.4 percent of executive management positions, similar to Catalyst's findings in the US, when we first began counting nearly a decade ago.

How Metrics Drive Change

Numeric data--such as measures of recruitment, representation, attrition, and promotion across all demographic groups--present a clear picture of the flow of talent through an organization. Metrics can:

* Encourage accountability. Metrics tie desired outcomes to the day-to-day behaviors of employees.

* Measure progress over time. Metrics are vital in helping to document trends.

* Maintain the momentum for change. Metrics reinforce the message that diversity is something an organization is committed to.

With this issue of Perspective Catalyst recognizes

AT&T Foundation The Coca-Coal Company

Key Findings:

                                          Then       Now

Women corporate officers              8.7% (1995)   15.7%
Women top earners                     1.2% (1995)    5.2%
Women of color corporate officers     1.3% (1999)    1.6%
Women corporate officers in
profit-and-loss positions
Women with highest titles             1.9% (1995)    7.9%
Companies with 25% or more women
  corporate officers                    25 (1995)      60
Companies with zero women corporate
  officers                             115 (1995)      71