Benefits February 23, 2004

Womens' Share of Executive Positions Dwindles

February 23, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The number of women occupying the C-suites dropped between 1990 and 2000, while minorities made inroads over the same time period.
Reported by

Females’ share of executive management positions – an occupational category containing 48 job titles including CEO, CFO, President and Vice President – dropped 13.1% points, from 31.9% in 1990 to 18.8% in 2000. Additionally, while the number of females in all management jobs increased by about one million, females’ share of these positions decreased from 37.2% in 1990 to 36.4% in 2000, according to an analysis provided by the Peopleclick Research Institute, the affirmative action research and compliance consulting arm of Peopleclick, Inc.

While the number of women executives was on the wane, over the same period, the number of minorities in management jobs grew by 830,000. Additionally, the minorities’ share of these positions increased from 13.0% in 1990 to 16.7% in 2000.

In fact, the increase of minorities at the top was across the board, while females made gains in a few fields. Examining data released by the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) taken from the 2000 US Census, the Institute combined the 471 occupational categories into 22 summary groups and examined these groups for changes at the national level for its preliminary analysis. This revealed that minorities increased their representation in all 22 occupational summary groups, with the largest increases in:

  • farming, fishing and forestry (from 31.4% to 48.7%)
  • computer and mathematical operations (from 16.3% to 25.1%)
  • transportation and material moving (from 26.5% to 33.5%).

Females experienced job share growth in legal (from 39.9% to 47.4%); community and social services (from 53.1% to 59.6%); and life, physical and social science occupations (from 34.6% to 41.1%). Yet, the female share of top jobs declined in computer and mathematical operations (from 32.3% to 30.0%); production (from 34.8% to 33.1%); and food preparation and serving related occupations (from 58.4% to 56.9%).

More information about theInstitute’s analysis, is available at www.peopleclick.com .

«