PINK Lists Top Companies for Women

When it comes to best practices in the advancement of women, these 13 companies are the real deal.

By James Burroughs

What company in America doesn’t talk a good game when it comes to diversity and parity for women at the top? Mission statements and board pledges and blue-ribbon task forces on women’s behalf are as much company fixtures today as the old boys’ golf outings — and maybe half as productive. But talk, as they say, is cheap.

That’s why for our second annual Top Companies for Women list, we again approached America’s leading companies and again invited them to show us — in hard-number terms — just how well women professionals are doing there. We asked nearly 100 questions on issues of Power, Pipeline and Pay — like the number of women reporting to the CEO, serving on the board of directors and managing multimillion-dollar P&Ls. We examined how quickly the ranks of women in middle and senior management are growing, and how well the companies hold their managers accountable for moving women ahead. And in a year when the pay gap actually wid en ed, we paid particular attention to equity in the payroll, looking for upward trends in the number of women among the highest earners.

Then we compiled the numbers, computed, scored and ranked. What emerged from the masses were the top 13 companies of all shapes and sizes that are truly walking the walk. Are they perfect? Heavens, no. Only one of them has a woman CEO, and women make up just 21 percent of their boards, on average. In no case does the percentage of women in executive leadership equal women’s share of total employment, and some don’t hold managers accountable for promoting women in greater numbers the way they should. But they’re getting there. And in the meantime they realize — as we do — that women’s advancement is about more than just flextime and family leave (though we considered those things too). It’s about a beautiful life and a beautiful career.

This is PINK, after all.

This article originally appeared in the September.October 2008 issue of PINK Magazine.