UC Davis study: Women still lag in holding top business posts

At a press conference on Monday, November 18, we released our fourth annual UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders. The UC Davis Graduate School of Management, in partnership with the Palo Alto-based Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives, conducts the annual census, which details the presence of women at the very top of the 400 largest publicly held corporations headquartered in the state.

Our findings continue to paint a disappointing picture of female representation on the boards and in the executive suites of these high-profile companies: women hold only 10.9% of the top decision-making positions, virtually unchanged from last year. Nearly a third of these 400 companies have no women in top executive posts or on the board of directors.

It's a disappointment and a missed opportunity to include a more diverse pool of leaders in California's corporations. The same innovative thinking that drives the world's eighth largest economy is not propelling women into key management positions at the largest public companies in the Golden State. Once a year, we'll continue to shine a spotlight on what the top of corporations look like.

In fact, our 2008 census suggests that a woman today stands a better shot at winning a seat in the U.S. Senate than a CEO job in California. Only 13 of the 400 companies have a woman serving as CEO.

California has more high-profile women political leaders than ever before: U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Washington, and here at home, state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. Their achievements, individually and collectively, are cause for celebration. But I have to ask: What will it take for us to see similar progress in California's boardrooms and executive suites?

Read my Op-Ed on this issue in the Sacramento Bee.

Read more about the census, the press coverage and download the study

Topping Off

One the real pleasures that I have as dean is serving as the spokesperson for the Graduate School of Management. Whenever a visiting CEO comes to town to speak to a class, I try to be on hand to give a welcome from the School. When we have prospective students on campus, I try to be there to thank them for considering UC Davis for their education. I am the spokesperson for our Welcome Lunch for entering MBA students, and I say good bye at Commencement, when we celebrate completion of the MBA program. I speak for the GSM at many proceedings during the months in between.

Today I got to play this role at a small but meaningful event, the "topping off" of our new under-construction building, Gallagher Hall.

This is a celebration by Ironworkers who are putting together the steel structure that frames our new building. Ironworkers traditionally mark the completion of the highest structural element with the ceremonial placement of a white beam signed by the workers, and any dignitaries who care to participate. A small group of us showed up to add our signatures to the beam, which was hoisted in place with a California redwood tree and American flag riding along. Fir trees are the usual species of tree used to top off buildings , given the European origins of the topping off tradition, but somehow it seemed right that a redwood go along for the ride. I spoke a few words about reaching an important milestone, and Associate Dean Woodruff told everyone that he had spent a summer working as an Ironworker and that this was the penultimate experience of that career. We all drank sparkling grape juice and seemed pleased to be there.

It was a low-key event, especially compared to the noisy celebration we had had just months earlier at the groundbreaking. At that event we had hundreds of supporters, alumni, faculty and administrators, not to mention the Cal Aggie Band-Uh and hundreds of balloons. The champagne flowed. This event, held at lunchtime on a hot August Monday, brought together just the workers and those of us who have been doing the dreaming and preparation to make this building a reality. The people who showed up today had gone to dozens of planning meetings, had negotiated contracts, had pitched the project to the University of California Regents, had raised money, and in many other ways made contributions that will never be visible to the public who admire our finished building. But we all signed the beam and know there is a little bit of evidence of our efforts inside.