It's still a guy's world

Progress at getting more women into the state's board rooms and executive suites continues to be glacial. The UC Davis Graduate School of Management is out with a study of women at California's 400 largest publicly held companies, and the results shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Women hold only 10.4 percent of the board seats and highest-paid executive officer positions, half the companies don't have a single woman among their executive officers (unbelievable), and only 13 of the 400 have a woman CEO. The pharmaceutical biz has the highest percentage (16.4 percent) of women directors, while telecoms have the lowest percentage. Retail has the highest percentage of women executive officers, while electronics has the lowest. Large companies have lots more women directors than small companies. And Silicon Valley has the worst representation of board members and executive officers. Yes, the numbers are an improvement over the Stone Age, but to applaud the incremental gains is to miss the bigger point: Guys still run the show because the system is still indelibly fixed in their favor. There's a big meeting today of the Professional Businesswomen of California, where these and many other stats will be presented. Here's the link to the full report. Below is the ranking of companies with the most women directors and executives.

1) Nara Bancorp Inc. 46.2%
2) Bare Escentuals Inc. 45.5%
3) Bebe Stores Inc. 43.5%
4) Hot Topic Inc. 36.0%
5) Jack in the Box Inc. 35.0%
6) Clorox Co. 33.3%
6) Longs Drug Stores Corp.
8) McClatchy Co. 32.0%
9) Advanced Medical Optics Inc. 31.6%
10) McKesson Corp. 31.3%