“The 2008 results are not for what we were hoping.” So wrote Cindy Kushner, chairwoman of the Women Executive Leadership group, in announcing the results of the organization’s latest census of women directors and executives at the top 150 public companies in the state as ranked by revenue by Florida Trend.
All told, women held 7.4% of board seats, down from 8.7% in 2006, according to the biannual census prepared in collaboration with the University of Miami School of Business Administration. The number of companies with no women directors increased.
Women of color held only 1.1% of board seats, up slightly from 0.9% in 2006. Some 16 companies had two or more women directors, down from 21 in 2006 after three of the 21 were acquired, one filed for Chapter 11 and one dropped off the rankings because of its revenue.
Companies with the highest revenue generally had more women board members, according to the WEL report. Women held 13.1% of the board seats at the 32 companies in Florida on the Fortune 1000.
Companies in the retail/restaurant sector led in women board members; 68.8% of companies had at least one woman director. Industrial manufacturing/construction was the opposite; 86.7% had no women directors.
Companies in central Florida had the highest percentage of board seats held by women, at 10.4%. Because of corporate acquisitions and reorganizations, companies in southwest Florida (at 6.3%) and southeast Florida (at 7.3%) had the lowest percentages. North Florida was at 7.9%.
Women are represented even less in the corner offices, but there has been some progress. In the 2008 census, women held just 7% of executive posts — 49 — up from 39, or 5.4%, in 2006. The Top 150 had 104 companies with no women executives, down from 116 in 2006.
Of Florida’s Top 150 Public Companies, 63 had neither women directors nor women executives.
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