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A statistical snapshot of women in the workplace leaves a lot to be desired.
In 2007, women made up 46% of the labor force and 50% of managerial positions, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization that focuses on professional women. However, among Fortune 500 companies women accounted for 15.4% of corporate officers, down from 15.6% in 2006. In 2007, women held 14.8% of board seats in Fortune 500 companies, essentially flat from the previous year. Indeed, a recent article in Condé Nast Portfolio states that after years of progress, women’s gains in the workplace appear to be slowing down or stalling.
It’s against this backdrop that professional women recently gathered in New York for The Feminine Mystique: The Status of Women in Marketing, Advertising & Media — and its Impact on the Bottom Line. The event, presented by The ADVERTISING Club, featured a panel that explored why there is such a dearth of women in the top ranks of corporate America.
Before everyone sat down for lunch I got the opportunity to talk with the panelists about the challenges women face trying to shatter the so-called “glass ceiling” and why, nearly a decade into the 21st century, we’re still having to talk about the “mommy track.”
In order, I spoke to: Dr. Bob Deutsch, cognitive anthropologist and founder of Brain Sells, a marketing services firm (Deutsch was the opening speaker); Trudy Hardy, Marketing Manager of MINI USA; Tim Armstrong, President of Advertising and Commerce, North America, Google (I asked Armstrong whether he could talk about the recently announced Google-Yahoo deal and he declined); Sheri Baron, President of Gotham, a full-service ad agency, and Perry Yeatman, senior VP-Corporate Affairs, Kraft Foods, and co-author of “Get Ahead by Going Abroad: A Woman’s Guide to Fast Track Career Success.”
Woman have made significant gains in the workplace, but the consensus among the panelists is that there are still miles to go.
