Good News, Bad News on Women Executives

Any woman's entry into the top executive ranks still merits public notice, but what about when the company is chock full of high-level women and yet still flounders?

A case in point is Liz Claiborne, named this week by the National Association for Female Executives as one of year's top companies for executive women.

Liz Claiborne Share Price

Luckily, the division that has been doing well, Direct Brands — which includes such fashion icons as Kate Spade and Juicy Couture — is run by a woman, Jill Granoff.

Although Liz Claiborne was named — along with Allstate Corp., American Express, I.B.M., and Procter & Gamble, and others — as a company dedicated to advancing women, the company's C.E.O. is a man, and only three of the top executives — including Granoff — in the 11-person executive rung are women.

This illustrated remarks by Betty Spence, the association's president, in announcing some of the top companies for women that, "Most people now mistakenly believe the barriers are gone and women's advancement is a slam-dunk."

She said that large corporations "still have fewer than 15 percent women on their boards, and fewer than nine percent running businesses."

Recent surveys by the Catalyst research group, she said, have found "no increase in women on Fortune 500 boards in three years and also a startling decrease in women running businesses — those in the profit-and-loss positions that lead to the C.E.O.'s office."

Women hold only 8.9 percent of those jobs, down from 10.6 percent in 2005, Spence pointed out.

"How can companies understand their markets when they exclude women from decisions?"

by Elizabeth Olson