FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Julia Monti, The Rosen Group 212.255.8455 2009 Marks Watershed Moment for Women in Business: NAFE Announces Top 50 Companies for Female Executives
Principal Financial Group, Liz Claiborne and
Top Companies Dedicated to Women’s Advancement
New York, N.Y. (March 16, 2009) – As the economy forces major shifts in America’s corporations, the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) urges companies to turn to female leadership to find terra firma—and strongly cautions against allowing women’s advancement to lose ground. Smart companies already are striving for gender balance, and today NAFE releases the NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women, spotlighting corporations whose commendable practices and employment records demonstrate that women matter to the bottom line.
In determining its Top Companies, NAFE places specific emphasis on the number of women running the business-of-the-business, jobs with profit-and-loss responsibility. According to a Columbia University/University of
“NAFE applauds the strides taken by our Top Companies, and urges further action across the board. It’s essential that companies realize that workplace equality is more than a moral obligation—it’s a fiscal one,” says Betty Spence, NAFE president. “Currently, women hold less than ten percent of the jobs responsible for profit-and-loss at our largest corporations, with an alarming 19 percent decline in recent years. Those companies with women running operations and making major decisions will have a significant competitive advantage.”
Companies with proven track records for women include
NAFE also reports that women are succeeding in industries pegged as boy’s clubs: at manufacturer Dupont, although women are only 26 percent of employees, they are 24 percent of senior managers; at Xerox, women are 31 percent of employees and fill 31 percent of senior management positions; and at IBM, the percentage of global women managers increased 564 percent since 1999.
In particular, the selected companies:
To make the list of the NAFE Top 50, companies must have at least two women on the board and track gender in P&L jobs, something they have not done before. “Companies that have women contributing their perspective and expertise to the actual running of the business not only are the ones that will survive our economic crisis, they will emerge from it as leaders in the global economy,” said Carol Evans, NAFE CEO.
NAFE will honor the Top Companies at a luncheon at
The 2009 NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women are (in alphabetical order):
The Top 10
Aetna –
AstraZeneca –
Avon Products –
General Mills –
IBM –
Johnson and Johnson –
Liz Claiborne –
Marriott International –
Principal Financial Group –
Procter & Gamble –
THE TOP COMPANIES
Abbott –
Allstate Insurance –
American Express –
Bank of
Bristol-Myers Squibb –
Cisco Systems –
Colgate-Palmolive –
Dow Chemical –
DuPont –
Eli Lilly and Company –
First Horizon National –
Ford Motor Company –
Hewlett-Packard –
HSBC - North America –
Intel – Santa Clara, Calif.
JPMorgan Chase –
Kellogg –
Kraft Foods –
Macy's –
McGraw-Hill –
Merck & Co. –
MetLife –
New York Times Company –
Northern Trust –
Office Depot –
Pearson –
Pfizer –
Phoenix Companies –
PNC Financial Services Group –
Prudential Financial –
Sallie Mae –
Schering-Plough –
State Farm Mutual –
Verizon Communications –
Wal-Mart Stores –
WellPoint –
Wyeth –
Xerox –
THE TOP NON-PROFITS
NAFE also honors five Top Nonprofits for Women Executives, all in healthcare, where women fill over 80 percent of employee ranks and more leadership roles than at for-profits.
Baptist Health South Florida –
Bon Secours
Mid-Michigan Health –
TriHealth –
VCU Health System –
Methodology: In addition to corporate programs and policies dedicated to advancing women, NAFE measured results, examining the number of women in each company overall, in senior management and on its board of directors. They drew particular attention to the number of women with profit-and-loss responsibility. To be named to the NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women, companies with a minimum of two women on the board completed a comprehensive application that focused on the number of women in senior ranks (compared to men and to the company population), including questions about the programs and policies which support women's advancement.
About NAFE: The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), founded in 1972, serves 20,000 members nationwide in the efforts to grow their careers and their businesses. NAFE magazine publishes the annual Top Companies issue as well as quarterly online magazines. NAFE.com keeps members in touch with each other throughout the year. Last year I-NAFE, international counterpart of NAFE was launched in
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