College of Business, CABLE study finds no progress for women in board rooms

The Lipscomb University College of Business recently conducted a study, sponsored by Nashville CABLE, that has resulted in some eye-opening results about the status of women in the corporate workplace.

 

Despite their increasing economic power, women are vastly underrepresented on the boards of directors and in the executive suites of Tennessee’s publicly traded companies, according to the study released last week and conducted by College of Business students and assistant professor of management Allison Duke.

 

The benchmarking research was based on fiscal year 2008 SEC filings, and showed no significant progress since the previous report from 2006. This is the only research of its kind in Tennessee, and Lipscomb’s business college conducted the study in 2007 and 2009. 

Key findings from the report revealed that more than 91% of the 618 corporate directors were men at a time when women made up 51.9% of the Tennessee work force. Out of the 73 public corporations, 47% had no women directors at all, and there were no women CEOs in the state. For women of color, the representation is significantly lower: only five of the 618 directors were women of color, and two of the 449 officers were women of color – less than a fraction of a percent in both categories. 

 

“After working with our students to conduct this study twice in a three-year period, it was disheartening to see almost no improvement in the numbers, and especially to discover that there are no women CEOs in Tennessee’s public companies,” said Duke, an expert in workplace diversity. “When you also consider that the most highly-compensated women officers in Tennessee earn 74% of the most highly-compensated male officers’ salaries, certainly it shows that we have a long way to go toward gender parity in the workplace.”

 

Tennessee is not unique in the insufficient representation of women on boards and in the executive suite, according to initial reports from InterOrganization Network (ION) affiliates. ION consists of 13 regional executive women’s organizations, of which CABLE is one, from across the United States that collectively advocate the advancement of women to positions of power in the business world. The ION national tracking study, along with a report calling for strong board self-evaluation and succession planning, is scheduled for release in first quarter 2010. 

 

“The ION nationwide data will be a great starting point for more inquiry into why this situation exists,” said Duke, who will conduct additional research with students this spring to determine how women’s behavior affects their careers. “We have to look at how women negotiate, how they network, how much time they take as caretakers in two-career families; all these factors can play a role in limiting women’s opportunities for advancement in the workplace.”

 

CABLE is Tennessee’s largest and most established network of professionals with over 600 members and a 30-year history of helping women reach their full potential. CABLE’s hallmark initiative is Women on Boards (WoB), dedicated to increasing numbers of women on Tennessee corporate boards and in the executive suite, and to helping lead that movement nationally.   

 

“Women are influential investors, asset managers and consumers to Tennessee companies,” said Sue Herrman, Chair of CABLE’s Women on Boards committee. “This study firmly establishes the need to effect change and help public company boards access the pool of qualified female talent.” 

 

The timeliness of this issue is evident in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recent enactment of the Governance Disclosure Rule, requiring corporations to disclose both director qualifications and diversity practices when evaluating and selecting board candidates, Herrman said.

 

Duke said the Women on Boards study is a useful tool to bring a reality check to today’s business students, who are actually the most fair-minded generation in history, she said, but who may not recognize the types of discrimination still going on.

 

“The reality is they are going to be working in the most diverse workplace that we have ever had,” Duke said. “The Women on Boards research study shows our students that while discrimination is still out there, this generation can make a change for the better.”