I often think about issues related to women in business.  However, the proverbial glass ceiling has been on my brain more than usual during the past few weeks.  When I graduated from college in the early 1990’s, there was talk about shattering the glass ceiling.  What’s amazing to me is the number of advancements that have been made since 1990.  Think about it!  Since then, the internet was created, the Human Genome Project was completed and the first cloned sheep (Dolly) was born.  Yet, during the same time the percentage of women CEOs in Fortune 500 companies only grew by 4% - from .20% in 1995 to 4.2% in 2012.  Make sense of that!

When I looked at the 20 F500 corporations that are led by women, only 3 of those companies were on the 2012 Working Mother 100 Best Companies list.  Among the “wow factors” that set those companies apart were:

HP – Fortune Rank 10 – CEO:  Meg Whitman

• Anyone who works at least 20 hours per week is eligible for health insurance, paid vacation and tuition assistance.
• 28% of the Managers/executives are women.
• Parents are given four paid hours of volunteer time per month, which they can use to assist educators.
• New moms are given 20 fully paid weeks off
• 85% of the employees work flexibly, while 8% work remotely at all times.

IBM - Fortune Rank 19 – CEO:  Virginia (Ginny) Rometty

•  More than 50 global councils and networks for women.  Works intently to promote the advancement of women through ties with professional organizations such as the Society for Women Engineers and Women in Technology International.  
• 23% of the executives are women and 2/3 of those women are mothers.
• Back-up child care and sick child-care offered
• 100% of the employees work flexibly.  98.5% telecommute.

Kraft Foods – Fortune Rank 50.  CEO:  W. Anthony Vernon.  Irene Rosenfeld was CEO at the time that the 2012 Fortune list was released. 

•  She headed up the split of Kraft into two companies.  Today she runs the newly formed Mondelez International.
• Everyone gets at least 20 days of paid time off per year, and receive another 5 days at milestone work anniversaries.
• 41% of the Managers/executives are women.
• 100% of the employees work flexibly.  Employees who want flexible work arrangements can simply log on to a website to submit their request.  Employees can work from home or other off-site locations 3 days/week. 

Offering flexible options that cater to parents is good business.   I understand that Yahoo is in the middle of a cultural shift.  However, I have really questioned some of Marissa Mayer’s decisions this year and wondered how they have impacted morale in general as well as working parents .  However, she recently took a great step in the right direction in my opinion.  While she took only two weeks off after the birth of her son, she has decided to expand parental leave at Yahoo.  New mothers and fathers can take up to 8 weeks of fully-paid leave.  If a woman gave birth to the baby, she is entitled to and additional 8 weeks of paid leave for a total of 16 weeks.   Yahoo is now on par with industry counterparts such as Google (22 weeks) and Facebook (16 weeks).  In addition, there are only five companies that exceed 16 weeks for moms on the Working Mother Top 100 list, and two organizations that exceed 8 weeks for new dads.  Definitely a step in the right direction!

Sources:

Peralta,E.  (2013, April 30) NPR.  Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer Expands Parental Leave.  NPR.org. Retrieved 5/1/13 from  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/30/180150731/yahoos-marissa-mayer-expands-parental-leave

2012 Working Mother 100 Best Companies.  Workingmother.com