At Mercy Health System, up-and-coming female leaders can attend workshops on financial management, go on group retreats and receive mentoring from senior executives.

Knowing what opportunities are out there is half the battle when it comes to making career decisions—and at this health-care system, where female executives create a development plan right from the start, it helps that they can temporarily test out positions in other departments or shadow senior leaders on the job. Employees complete an average of 31 hours of continuing education every year, and they can easily supplement that, drawing on $3,000 in annual tuition aid and more than a dozen scholarships (including one just for pursuing an MBA or MS). If they need to go on sabbatical to complete their studies, they may be able to have their employer simply double their paid time off.

President & CEO: Javon Bea

VP, HR & Organizational Development: Kathy Harris

% of senior managers who are women: 62%

% of corporate executives who are women: 36%

% of promotions to manager, senior manager and corporate executive positions that went to women: 100%

% of the top 10% of the company’s earners who are women: 83%

% of corporate executives with profit-and-loss responsibility who are women: 33%

% of the executives running divisions with revenues of more than a billion dollars who are women: 100%

% of executives who report directly to the CEO who are women: 36%

% of the members of the board of directors who are women: 25%

% of female workforce participating in mentoring: 15%