Watch CBS News

Few Women At The Top Of Fortune 500 Companies

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - While some people may recognize the names of Mary Barra, recently appointed CEO of General Motors; Marissa Mayer of Yahoo!; and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, there are few women leaders of mega companies with little increase in the past three years.

Of the top Fortune 500 companies, 135 have no female executive officers.

According to Ilene Lang, CEO of Catalyst, for the eighth consecutive year, only 16.9% of corporate board seats were held by women in 2013 and she is perplexed in that "successful business performance is linked to diverse leadership." Ten percent had zero women on their boards and two-thirds had no women of color as board members.

An article in The Huffington Post has many interesting comments on the dearth of women at the top and Lang is quoted once again, "Shareholders Beware: a company with no women at the top is missing one of the biggest opportunities in the marketplace today."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.