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New Core Metric of Competitiveness - Gender Balance on Executive Committees

20-first's WOMENOMICS 101 Survey

  • 20-first has published its first annual survey of the top global companies – the top Fortune 101 companies in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
  • Focusing on a core gender balance metric, the report measures the balance on the Executive Committee – the top team that reports directly to the CEO.
  • The report invites you to look deeper into companies, and use metrics that distinguish those serious about gender balance from the rest.

20-first's WOMENOMICS 101 Survey - KEY FINDINGS

  • US Leads: The US is ahead, with just over half of the companies surveyed having one or two women at this level. The American companies with the highest number of women on their executive boards are: Kraft Foods, WellPoint, Macy’s, Allstate, Pfizer, and Wells Fargo.
  • Europe and Asia Lag: Both Europe and Asia have barely embarked on the gender journey. 82% of companies in Asia and 68% of companies in Europe have no women at all on their Executive Committees.
  • Women Promote Women: Only a dozen companies out of 303 achieved a critical mass percentage of 30% women on their Executive Committees, which studies have shown is significant if companies want to create more effective leadership teams. They are all US-based and three of them are run by women CEOs – WellPoint, Kraft Foods, and Archer Daniels Midland.
  • Lack of Women in Operational Roles: The majority of women promoted to the Executive Committees of the surveyed companies are in support roles (76% in the US).
20-first's WOMENOMICS 101 Survey, 2009 (PDF 1 MB)

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Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO, 20-first

“It’s time to look deeper into companies, and find metrics that distinguish those serious about gender balance from the rest. That’s what WOMENOMICS 101 proposes to do. Every year, we will focus on a single measure of success: the gender balance on the Executive Committee of the top companies around the globe.”

Christopher Thomas, Partner, Egon Zehnder International

“I commend you on the initiative, the 20-first’s WOMENOMICS 101 Survey, and completely agree that a change of focus in this way would be a very positive development. I have become convinced that the board related issues are merely the tip of an iceberg and the action really needs to take place within senior management ranks if gender equality is going to move at all.”