DETROIT ? Women are still a widely untapped resource at the executive level, as well as in board rooms, compared to their male counterparts at Michigan’s largest public corporations, a new study shows. More revealing is the lack of women of color at the top of these companies.

Published for the first time in 2003, the Michigan Women?s Leadership Index is a one-of-a-kind bi-annual look at the presence of women leaders at the highest levels of the 100 largest publicly held corporations headquartered in the state. The study, by the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, was commissioned by the Inforum Center for Leadership, the non-profit education and research arm of Inforum (formerly the Women?s Economic Club).

?Change is occurring slowly, but the lack of women at the executive level and in the board room continues to be discouraging,? said Terry Barclay, president and CEO of Inforum and Inforum Center for Leadership (ICL).

?There is still no female CEO of an Index 100 company and 41 percent of Michigan?s top 100 public companies still do not have any women directors,? she said. ?This is in spite of the fact that women occupy 50.1 percent of the managerial and professional positions in Michigan?s civilian labor force1, influence 91 percent of household purchasing decisions and have control over $14 trillion in wealth. However, the corporate pipeline that is increasingly female ? starting with college enrollments and graduates and culminating in the senior officer ranks ? gives hope that more women may eventually progress to upper level positions.?

New to the 2007 Index

Significant changes and additions were made to this year?s study to present a more comprehensive and valuable analysis of the presence of women in Michigan?s business landscape. The first of which is a report and analysis on the presence of women directors and top earners by their absolute numbers and percentages, in addition to assigning Index scores. Second, while previous studies focused only on those women among the top five earners (highest paid executives), the 2007 Index includes data on all executive officers that companies listed in their 10K annual reports. And finally, a special section is devoted to an analysis on women of color, women in board committee leadership roles, and Michigan?s Fortune 500 and 1000 companies.

Most Valuable Players Gain Some Ground

Eight companies earned ?MVP? status in this year?s study, an increase from six in 2005, but still short of the 10 MVPs in 2003. Five new companies made the MVP list: Arvin Meritor, Comerica, American Physicians Capital, Asset Acceptance Capital and Wolverine World Wide. Three of the eight MVPs, Compuware, FNBH Bancorp and X-Rite, are repeat MVPs from both 2005 and 2005.

For the third time, FNBH Bancorp of Howell is the overall highest scoring company with three women on its board of directors and four women officers.

The report uses the language of sports to characterize companies according to their Index scores.

Those with the highest scores are identified as ?Most Valuable Players (MVPs);? those with middling scores are ?In the Game;? and companies with no women officers or board directors are ?On the Sidelines.? The study also differentiates the 100 companies by size, with 20 falling into Group I (Fortune 500), 61 in Group II (market capitalization greater than $100 million but not a Fortune 500) and 19 in Group III (market cap less than $100 million).

Women at the Executive Level

According to the 2007 Michigan Women?s Leadership Index report, 55 percent of the Index companies have at least one woman executive officer. However, women hold only 88 (or 11.6 percent) of the 757 senior positions in Michigan?s 100 largest companies.

?There seems to be more hope in increasing the number of women executives than board members, as it is generally faster to get qualified women into the executive ranks and get them noticed,? said Kathy Oswald, ICL board chair.

No Progress in the Board Room

The percentage of women directors of the 100 Index companies has remained virtually unchanged for four years. Currently, women occupy 9.8 percent of the board seats, compared to 9.9 percent in 2005 and 9.6 percent in 2003. Forty-one-percent still do not have any women directors, the same as 2003. Of those women on boards, seven of them hold various committee chair positions and only one serves as chairperson of the board. When it comes to the presence of women directors and executive officers, 34 companies (34 percent) have at least one of each, while 20 percent have neither.

Women of Color

Women of color are nearly absent at the top of Michigan?s 100 largest public companies ? only four (0.5 percent) hold executive positions and only nine (1 percent) occupy a director?s seat. There are no women of color on any Michigan Fortune 500 company board or on the board of a smaller Group II company. Nationally, women of color occupied 3.1 percent of the board seats in the Fortune 500 companies in 2006.

Women as Top Five Earners

This year, more of Michigan?s Index 100 companies have women among their top five earners. Thirty-one percent have one or more women among their highest paid executives, an increase from 21 percent in 2005 and 24 percent in 2003. However, the percentage of all top five earners is still in the single digits (7.1 percent), which is an increase from 2005 (5.7 percent), but the same as 2003.

How Michigan?s Fortune 500 Stacks Up Nationally

Nationally, Michigan?s Fortune 500 companies are comparable to their peers in terms of the percentage of board seats held by women — 14.3 percent in Michigan versus 14.6 percent national. However, Michigan lags in the percentage of executive positions held by women (12.2 percent Michigan, 15.6 percent national) and in the percentage of women as top five earners (4 percent Michigan, 6.7 percent national).

Business Sectors: Real Estate & Construction and Financial Services Lead, Automotive Still Lags

In addition to individually scoring and ranking each company, the Women?s Leadership Index also evaluates the presence of women executives and board members by sector. Of the eight sectors identified, 4 only two ? Real Estate & Construction (6 companies) and Financial Services & Insurance (31 companies) ? have the highest average combined presence of women in the boardroom and the top-earning executives. The Automotive sector (16 companies) again received the lowest overall score.

The Pipeline: Women in Higher Education

Women?s enrollment and presence have also increased on college campuses across the nation. But there is a big gap between their impressive graduation statistics and their presence at the top corporate levels. In the academic years, women earned more than half of the bachelor?s and master?s degrees (58 percent bachelor?s, 61 percent master?s) In Michigan?s 12 public universities, on average, women currently make up 56 percent of total full-time undergraduate enrollment.

?With a candidate pool that is increasingly female, well-educated and forward-looking, it makes ? good business sense to recognize and utilize the intellectual capacity of women in the workforce,? said Barclay. ?Hopefully, this pipeline of talent for Michigan companies will not be lost.?

Complete copies of the 2007 Women?s Leadership Index report are available at InforumMichigan.Org

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