A study conducted by Catalyst, a nonprofit that promotes opportunities for women in business, revealed that women in 2008 made no significant gains in achieving more top U.S. business jobs. Women also did not make gains in becoming board directors, corporate officers or top earners at Fortune 500 companies. Women currently make up only 15.1 percent of board directors, and percentage of top earners in 2008 who were women is a meager 6.2 percent. The Chicago Tribune recently ran a story that supported these findings, reporting that female executives are losing ground at Chicago’s top firms.
This news comes after a Pennsylvania study revealed the gender wage gap growing in this state (we blogged about it here). Reuters story on the study is available here. Full results of the boards of directors study are available here (in PDF format), and the report on corporate officers and top wage earners is here (also in PDF format).
