Social changes that have broadened women's roles still aren't reflected at the top of many public corporations in this state, fresh research confirms.
Free Press business writer Alisa Priddle has the findings from WSU and a professional women's alliance:
It’s still a man’s world in the boardrooms and corner offices of Michigan’s top public companies, with the rate of change toward gender parity glacially slow.
Of the 850 board seats, women hold just 98, and for women of color, the number is only 12, according to a study from Inforum, the state’s premier business group for women executives and entrepreneurs, and from the Wayne State University School of Business Administration.
Twenty-eight publicly traded firms have no women in the top job, on the board or among the five highest-compensated executives, says the 51-page Michigan Women's Leadership report. (A two-page summary is here.)
Though 46 new directors joined Michigan’s top 100 public companies in a recent 18-month span, the study notes, only 11 (24 percent) were women. "Obviously we'd like for it to be reversed," Inforum CEO Terry Barclay tells Priddle. “We have to do better.”
In contrast, these companies are cited as admirable examples:
- Steelcase, the only big Michigan company with at least 25% female board members, 30% female executive officers and 40% among the five highest-paid.
- Compuware, the state’s largest tech company, is the only top Michigan firm with two women of color on its board (Faye Alexander Nelson and Glenda Price).
- DTE Energy, General Motors, Kelloggs, Kelly Services and Spartan Stores are among 13 companies with at least 25% women board members.
Those commenting on the study in the Free Press include Nancy Schlichting, CEO of Henry Ford Health System for a decade. “I am fortunate to have worked with enlightened men interested in promoting women,” she tells the business writer.
