Why Aren't There More Women CEO's?

[JDELEON]

It is great to hear that there is no glass ceiling at your mom's company.

Top of mind however, I can only think of 1 local female CEO of a top company: Ms. Emily Abrera of McCann Erickson. There are, of course, many well-placed women in the country. However, I can only think of one CEO.

May Angels smile upon you,
Joe
ps. Correction, the successful woman featured was Cynthia Trudell of Saturn (a GM Company) and her husband is a high school math teacher. You can find the article in www.fortune.com, (http://www.fortune.com,) or at
http://library.northernlight.com/LH20000713010000339.html?cb=13&sc=0#doc

[JDELEON]

Actually, I don't have the answer. Being neither a CEO or a woman (last time I checked anyway.)

But this article might stimulate discussion.
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/37/bookreport.html

This is a book review called "Why Aren't There More Women at the Top?" It contrasts 3 recent publishings about women and success.

The most interesting one was found to be Book: Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love, and Life in a Half-Changed World
Author: Peggy Orenstein
Publisher: Doubleday
Price: $25

Her bon idee is the obvious realization that a major factor in women's success at the workplace is her own expectations of family. Successful women have to be superwomen, managing both their homes and businesses. Most successful men are married and have families while most successful women don't.

In an unrelated article, there was a profile of successful globetrotting businesswoman who also happened to have a family. It also turned out that her husband was a school teacher and could stay at home. (If I am not mistaken, this was in a Fortune article profiling the All-Star Analysts of Wall Street.)

Perhaps the women here have something to add. Maybe things are different here in the Philippines? (Maids, a matriarchal society) Again, I don't know...

Here's praying for, working towards a better, saner, more equitable work environment.
May Angels smile upon you,
Joe

[batang uliran]

Things may be different in the Philippines. In my mom's company, women occupy important positions.

[kerb]

Imelda Marcos.
she owns most of the biggest companies in the philippines :)

jk!

[batang uliran]

Cora de la Paz of Joaquin Cunanan
Vicky Garchitorena of Ayala Foundation Inc.
Mercedes Gotianun with Filinvest
Tessie Sy
Robina Gokongwei-Pe

[KuyaDanny]

My own very unscientific observation about this is that childbearing will take away 12-18 months' "career time" for every child a woman has. To the extent that time spent on the job relates to the level of success in that job, then women are indeed disadvantaged.

However, the trend could be reversing now. Women are (generally) marrying late and having fewer children, allowing them more time and opportunities on the job.

[Calypso]

Hintay mo lang ako, JDELEON, I'm on my way to break the glass ceiling! :)

Isn't HP's CEO a woman, Carly Fiorina? IDOL! Beautiful girl, that woman.

[sampaguita]

Now how fair is life? We makes the babies and we get the lower paychecks.

[simarie]

wait till i become a CEO, CIO, or CTO


..... hehehe puro C... ito gusto ko: CUTE

seriously, i think women are more logical than men.... women has the instinct of juggling things up... therefore more capable to accomplish more tasks in a short time - the very essence of heading a company!

[tsadi]

Originally posted by Calypso:
Hintay mo lang ako, JDELEON, I'm on my way to break the glass ceiling! :)

Isn't HP's CEO a woman, Carly Fiorina? IDOL! Beautiful girl, that woman.

[OFF TOPIC] wag mo sana kaming kalimutan Calypso ha :D

[JDELEON]

Originally posted by simarie:

seriously, i think women are more logical than men.... women has the instinct of juggling things up... therefore more capable to accomplish more tasks in a short time - the very essence of heading a company!

Women are not more logical, but I would say that you are smarter. Men are more left-brain dependent (Math/analysis). Women have been found to utilize both sides of their brain when addressing a problem. This means that they are engaging their creative and emotional side as well. The results are that men will come up with a logical answer, but women will arrive at the holistic answer.

So go ahead, call your boyfriend a half-wit.

May Angels smile upon you,
Joe

[makiling]

the last three own the conglomerate, at least their families did. vicky garchitorena just heads a non profit foundation of a group. to my mind the question is more related to CEO of a huge company, multinational perhaps who was placed there due to performance and capabilities and not due to blood.

The reason perhaps would be more of family. I would never never exhange a flourishing career, a position at the top for family responsibilities.

Originally posted by batang uliran:
Cora de la Paz of Joaquin Cunanan
Vicky Garchitorena of Ayala Foundation Inc.
Mercedes Gotianun with Filinvest
Tessie Sy
Robina Gokongwei-Pe

[Air_magic]

Have you ever seen a woman driver?????

[JDELEON]

Seen on CNBC (Asian Working Woman)

Of the the US$ 45 Billion in venture capital funding disbursed last year, only 5% went to women.

In contrast, women entrepreneurs have been founding start-ups at twice the rate of men.

[zimdude]

Cynthia Mamon of SUN Philippines.

Carol Carreon (bio (http://www.sap.com/asia/press/man_bio/carol_bio.htm)) of SAP.

Expats:

Annemarie Durbin of Standard Chartered Bank

Catherine Weir of Citibank (the one with the infamous husband)

[trixxie]

why aren't there more women CEOs? teamwork! men and women don't usually work together well in teams. the reason is evolution. men and women are very different as you may have noticed. many women over-compensate for their femininity by being nasty dragons once they're in executive positions. reason is, they don't want to appear soft. so they're overly harsh and unyielding instead. i've had many women tell me that they hate working for female bosses because of that. i learned from that feedback. :)

[aticus]

Sometimes it's also a matter of priority, not competence. My mom is both a CPA and an MBA-holder, and she'd rather stay at home and run her own small-scale catering business, while teaching on the side. It's what makes her happy. She could earn so much more in the corporate world, but it just doesn't hold any appeal for her, I guess.

[Leigh]

Even if we say that the Philippines have this thing about Equality for both males and females, the CEO position for multinational companies is still with the males.

A lot of women are very capable to become CEOs, it's just that there are a lot of prejudices against them that hinders their growth.

-Usually women are accused to be fickle-minded and decision making is a problem to them
-People say that women in reality have a "softer" heart and that they can't fire people without thinking about the family and the like,
-and there is the woman's responsibility to her family and sometimes it gets in the way.





[Edited by Leigh on 06-14-2001 at 10:33 AM]

[NoisyCricket]

Well, if Leigh would like to become a CEO, she gets my vote! :D LEIGH FOR CEO!

- Men can sometimes be just as fickle-minded as women.

- People say that women in reality have a "softer" heart and that they can't fire people without thinking about the family and the like, --> maybe, but no way does this sound like a good enough reason not to give a woman the CEO position

-and there is the woman's responsibility to her family and sometimes it gets in the way. -> Like Aticus said, for most women (without being one myself of course!), their priorities change in life.. I dunno. Let's just say I would find it hard to imagine a woman who would prioritize her work and her career over her family.. (not counting single unmarried women with children of course - that becomes a moot point?)

Not saying that men WOULD prioritize their work over their family either.. in fact, when I have kids, there is nothing I'd like to do more than just hang around them, especially while they're still young. :)

[trixxie]

it's a male-dominated society...women don't move as fast as men for many structural reasons, not always related to ability.

[trixxie]

why do women with the same ability get paid less for the same work? MEN! men dominate the workplace...

[tr|n|ty]

why? because it's still a man's world, no doubt about that. though i am a staunch feminist, women have evolving priorities in their lives(making a home, raising a family, among others). they are multi dimensional than most men which is another reason for the woman's superiority to the male of the specie..hehe Women don't have to be CEOs to prove how smart or powerful they are because at the end of the day, the CEO male will go home to a female and hand in his paycheck :teehee:

[NoisyCricket]

Originally posted by tr|n|ty
because at the end of the day, the CEO male will go home to a female and hand in his paycheck :teehee:

Walang hiya..! :lol: I guess that's also in part na rin for taking care of most of the household stuff like cleaning, cooking, laundering, and general household things ;)

Such is life..!

[Triglyceride]

Because, despite pay equity and gender equality, our society still reeks of patriarchy.

.....I salute those women who were able to break that glass ceiling *okay*. YOU GO GIRL!!!! ;)

[zimdude]

What society has the least amount of discrimination, or has the least "glass ceilings?"

[ExtremeDreamer]

Funny you should ask... I had to do a paper regarding this in high school. It's extremely frustrating for women, but this culture where men dominate the workplace has been in place since the dawn of human history and could not be changed over night.

Having said that, I've seen improvements over the years as more and more women build careers for themselves. I'm seeing more women in middle and upper management. Living in Canada, I'm extremely impressed with women, especially immigrant women, who've managed to make something of themselves. I've had the privilege of meeting such a woman when I joined a company recently. Her name is Agnes Miranda who is now a CEO of World Financial Group, an Atlanta, Georgia based financial marketing company with sales of over $2 B a year. (for more information re: the company, please see thread: Take the opportunity & run with it (http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php3?threadid=48902)) The company is relatively new as I said in the previous thread. There were obviously growing pains as could be associated with any other start-up business. But Agnes worked hard, believed in the company, believed in herself and her skills and now she's reaping the rewards. She was an ordinary lady, with extra ordinary dreams, and her dreams made her.

[zimdude]

I'm happy for my friend Therese of FemaleNetwork, she got featured in SUNDAY INQUIRER Magazine today!

http://www.inq7.net/mag/2001/jul/08/mag_8-1.htm

http://www.inq7.net/mag/2001/jul/08/images/net.jpg

Look at that laptop sticker!

WHILE studying at the Ateneo, Marie Therese Kilayko Ng would lug her beloved Macintosh SE to school in a distinctive blue stroller, to the point that classmates referred to her as "the Yakult lady." She hardly ever considered herself an activist, though she admits she was always "kind of a feminist." After graduating in 1994, she taught at Assumption San Lorenzo and joined ABS-CBN's then-fledgling interactive media division. While taking her Masters in Publishing at New York University, Therese had coffee with Lisa Gokongwei, big boss of Summit Media, publisher of magazines such as Cosmopolitan Philippines and Preview. That Manhattan caffeine break eventually evolved into the idea of putting up a website for Filipino women. After helping put up Candymag.com, Therese came on board to become the navigator of Femalenetwork.com. First uploaded in April 2000, the site is a place on the Net where Filipinas can discuss what matters to them. Aside from being Femalenetwork.com's busy producer, Therese is also general manager of Summit Interactive, in charge of the online publishing business of Summit Media. It's a long way for this digital Yakult lady, but the brainy, hyperactive 28-year-old is now fully comfortable with her role. "I don't believe this!" Therese enthuses, "I finally love what I'm doing."

[badtzmaru]

corporate-wise, women in the phils have it MUCH better than their american counterparts. hmmm, maybe that's just because pinays are more capable than mga puti

[zimdude]

Carol Carreon of Bayantrade.com.

http://www.inq7.net/bus/2001/nov/25/bus_1-1.htm

From slums to boardrooms
By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Inquirer News Service

[reykjavik]

Originally posted by Air_magic
Have you ever seen a woman driver?????

I am one and generally female drivers pay lower premiums bec we have less accidents. we don't take stupid risks that put other ppl in danger.

[tr|n|ty]

i have to agree, filipino women are luckier than their american counterparts. there is still a "glass ceiling" for most Women workers in Corporate America. in my firm, i have yet to see a top ranking woman partner. sigh.

[ohmy]

the big boss of sunlife phil and asia pacific is a woman (my neighbor)

now, meron ba mga woman CEO na younger than 40? para tipid ako 20yrs of hardwork diba? hehe :hmm:

[leelayce]

it's because of the


one :culture


two: role of the women---- being a "bionic being", playing several roles, HOMEMAKING---BEING ONE MOST IMPORTANT.---that requires more than enough time.



my two cents


:bubble:

[angel_princess]

Originally posted by tr|n|ty
i have to agree, filipino women are luckier than their american counterparts. there is still a "glass ceiling" for most Women workers in Corporate America. in my firm, i have yet to see a top ranking woman partner. sigh.

I have to agree. Australia can boast some of the most high level EEO laws but you can count the number of women occupying the senior management positions on your hands. This is particularly evident in the financial services sector. Attending Board Meetings as a guest to present updates on my project, I distinctly remember that of the 8 General Managers only one was female. It goes without saying that the CEO is male as well.

As for my opinion as to the reasons behind this. I think it has historic foundations. In Australia, as in many other westernised countries, we speak of forefathers (not a mother in sight...). The glass ceiling was put there long before I was born - I doubt it's going to shatter any time during my lifetime. Breaking into the boys club is damned hard....

[watland]

Other CEO's are Yolly Ong, of Campaigns and Grey, who risked her life by coming out with ads to expose the Partido Ng Masa party lies... a big salute to Yolly!

Also Jimenez D'Arcy has joint CEO's, the terrific tandem of Mon and Abby Jimenez.

Most of the vital positions (Senior Vice Presidents) are also occupied by bright women.

Indeed, women come a long way. And they've proven to make a big difference in mass communications.

And there are more and more female commercial directors doing great in their fields than before when it was dominated by male directors.

[watland]

More CEO's and Presidents in the Advertising Industry:

1. Chiqui Lara and Tere Filipinia of Basic Advertising
2. Socky Pitargue of PLW Advertising
3. Mariles Gustilo of Lowe, Lintas & Partners
4. Barbara Gonzales of J. Romero & Associates

Cheers!

[tr|n|ty]

yep, it's also about the industry we choose to take part in. i work for the financial services industry and there are only but a few, a handful, of women who are in senior management level. i often work with an almost all-male engagement team(save for me) and it gets intimidating sometimes, but we all have to take it in stride. playing it with the boys is just showing them that you are not a softee, you know the same or even more stuff than they do. it's sad to say that women have to be biatches to succeed in this world. i love it when i can show off some technical skills more than my male counterparts. hehehe.

glass ceilings were brought about with the same notion that only WASPs(White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) can be the leaders of corporate america. race and sex do play in this game. hopefully with the rise of Merril Lynch's first black CEO and Condeleeza Rice's rise as the first black and first woman National Security Adviser, women and minorities(go asian power!) can break through the ceiling.

i'm keeping my fingers crossed..you may be talking to the first asian female CEO of a top investmeng bank/financial services firm :glee:

[wisenheimer]

Why aren't there more women CEO's? I think the answer is quite simple:

Boys are smarter and more aggressive than girls.

Obviously, there will be exceptions to the rule. But in general, my statement holds true. Men have ruled the world for thousands of years. Women just got out of the kitchen in the past 50 years, so its not in their training and their genetic makeup to be successful. Like I said, anyone can point out examples of succesful women. But that's like finding tall filipinos when the average height is 5'6".

[tr|n|ty]

hmm
i think i will object on the "smarter" argument. women are as smart or even smarter than men. the differences are the priorities in life and the aggresiveness.

[wisenheimer]

Originally posted by tr|n|ty
hmm
i think i will object on the "smarter" argument. women are as smart or even smarter than men. the differences are the priorities in life and the aggresiveness.

Hmmm, obviously a comment from a woman.

Let me restate: men are smarter than women.

If you live in NYC, then there's a good chance you work on Wall Street. What is the ratio of men to women among professionals on the Street? All Wall Street firms care about is "can you make a buck for us?" regardless of gender, nationality, etc. But there are a lot more men than women on Wall Street. Why? Because men are smarter than women. And if you say its because of prime child-rearing years, I don't buy it. Life spans on the street is probably 10 years, giving women plenty of time to have kids.

Men outnumber women in business, law, engineering, and medical schools. Why? Because men are smarter than women.

I'm sure you're probably pretty smart. But like I said, there are exceptions to the rule.

[tr|n|ty]

hmm sorry, i don't buy that either.
and no i dont work on the street, i work in midtown :glee:

seriously, for example..in my high school(arguably, the best high school in the Philippines) class, most of the top ten were women and almost all(if not all) who went to college in the states were women. i don't think we can relate that to prime child rearing years, huh?

the sad part about our society is that women are not encouraged to be the best they can be. they're trained to be good mothers and wives which i don't argue against. i plan to be a good mother and wife as well but i would also want to be the best possible finance professional i can be.

hey i'm not saying that men are not smart but i don't think they're smarter than women.

[victory]

Wisenheimer, I am amazed at your powers of logic.

Your proof that men are smarter than women is constructed as follows:

1. Look at descriptive statistics of "the world"
2. Infer directly that because men outnumber women in the samples you select, that therefore men are smarter than women.

What is your background and training? Do you know your economic history and statistics? Are you familiar with terms like "unobserved heterogeneity" and "omitted variable bias"? Are you aware of the limitations of cross-sectional analysis without panel data? Are you aware of the literature comparing differences across genders in various measures like grades, performances in standardized tests, etc., controlling for the relevant variables -- as well as the limitations of these proxy measures for "intelligence," given that it is now acknowledged that intelligence has multiple dimensions and possible definitions?

Shall I take you to school? Let's begin with Lesson #1: Economic history. You say that "men have ruled the world for thousands of years." Fat lot of good that has done the world. Let's talk percentage growth in GDP per capita as one of the most accepted measures of income and progress, since you seem to value income. At what point in history did GDP per capita really start picking up? Was it during the feudal history of the world, when men largely ruled the most powerful countries? Or was it during the late 1700s to the early 1800s, when industrialization began in England? What is the causal variable that very much influenced the economic expansion of England during this time? Hint: Increase in L (labor force), where Y (GDP) as the production function is f(K (stock of physical capital, L (labor force), A (total factor productivity), and perhaps education and trade policy as well). Second question: What drove the increase in L in England? Fast forward to the 20th and 21st century if you're not the type to appreciate history: Third question -- What's holding countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan back in today's modern world?

If you really want to arrive at meaningful insights about these gender issues, I expect meaningful responses to my inquiries above. If this is going to be another senseless bashing thread I'll stop here.

[victory]

By the way, I am a man, just in case you end up inferring that my response above was attributable to my being a woman. And I am very happily married to a woman whom I consider to be my intellectual equal, if not my superior.

[victory]

And just in case there are some folks who don't get my drift and who would prefer a direct answer rather than my line of questioning, this is my bottom line: There is no sound empirical evidence that men are smarter than women when one controls for other important causal variables like differences in income, education, etc. In other words, control for background and environment and have men and women compete on the basis of the different measures of intelligence alone and you will not find a statistically significant difference in their performance.

While there are some studies in psychology (particularly psychometrics) that note that men sometimes outperform women in specialized areas of what may constitute intelligence like abstract reasoning, these studies are also subject to shortcomings in statistical and experimental methodology -- the very same studies also note that women outperform men in other measures of intelligence and performance.

My digression into economic history above was to emphasize the very important point that the entry of women into the labor force has served to enhance economic growth in countries that provided opportunities and choice for the female gender.

Now, as to the original question of why we observe less women in CEO positions, I believe that folks like tr|n|ty have covered the relevant explanatory variables well. And it is not because men are inherently smarter than women, as wisenheimer claims.

If any of you can cite a definitive study that proves that men are smarter than women -- and by "definitive" I mean a serious study, probably published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and having withstood opposing experiments and arguments, not the simple "let me quote what Businessweek or the Economist said last week" -- then give me the reference or the citation, I'll read through it, and then we can discuss empirical methodology intelligently. If it's just casual empiricism that will prevail (I think this, you think that, this is my opinion, etc., etc.), then I would prefer not to continue this discussion.

Yes, I am a man. But I believe in women's potential and abilities immensely.

[wisenheimer]

You people crack me up. I posted that message about men being smarter than women just to see what kind of responses I would get. I am most amazed at Victory's responses, complete with intellectual jargon, references to history, statistical studies, etc.

Victory: I thought you were a PhD student at Wharton. You seem to have plenty of free time to spend on these boards, though your messages are quite interesting, thoughtful....and lengthy. Perhaps you should get off the web and get out in the world.

By the way, I'm a woman.

[victory]

Check, wisenheimer. :) I tend to assume that folks here post their honest-to-goodness opinions instead of checking for interesting responses. That's probably fairly naive, huh? I would be seriously worried for my loved ones who are female if folks honestly thought men were just born smarter than women, though. I know that large pockets of the world still do. And since I currently work with a team that's exploring the construction of optimal aid packages for Pakistan and Afghanistan, I tend to feel very strongly about women's issues. Honestly sorry if you took offense and feel that I overreacted, but I guess you baited us and I fell for it.

Former students of mine from Ateneo invited me to this online forum because they thought it would help me keep in touch with what students and other folks from the Philippines are thinking about. Admittedly a biased sample, but I find some of the threads fairly revealing and insightful. I try to make sure that I do get enough of the world, though. Pakistani and Afghani issues real enough for you?

Were you baiting people for interesting responses with your comment on the University of Chicago's MBA program, too? :)

[Mikoid]

Oh dear, did everyone's favorite Jedi Master victory get sucked into another's jedi-socratic inquiring mind tricks? :D

Sorry, off topic...

[victory]

Ha ha, yes, I guess so Mikoid! :) On the one hand, I fell into wisenheimer's game hook, line and sinker. On the other hand, would I have replied differently if I had known she was baiting folks? Not really. My lengthy :) response would still have been the same, if it's to defend against a claim of men being inherently smarter than women. :)

On another note, I did post a disclaimer before I posed what you have labeled as "Jedi mind tricks." I didn't exactly pretend I believed otherwise. :)

[denise]

victory though u are inclined to respond to this thread with much enthusiasm, well it seems to me that for every reaction to the topic, u always try to sqeeze in some info about who you are, where you came from and and the people you work with, when these do not have anything to do with the topic itself.

while it may also be true that you are correct and intelligent in your own definition, there's no need to post as if you are some omniscient and nobody else can be superior than you.

though citing facts and quoting might be needed to backup your responses.


. . . . . . . . . . . and dare threaten to stop further discussing? who's stopping you? im sure you have colleagues of your intellectual equal to discuss these things. so why waste your time in PEx. :rolleyes:


p.s. na-anticipate mo ba ang bashing? :lol:


,. . . . . the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know YET. . . . . henyo ka kasi eh ;)

[victory]

Apologies if I came across so offensively to you, denise.

[denise]

and you're online.......


hello! :wave:

[badtzmaru]

"Boys are smarter than girls"

maaaaaan, that is Sooooooo funny.

thanks for the laugh.

[zimdude]

Originally posted by watland

Other CEO's are Yolly Ong, of Campaigns and Grey, who risked her life by coming out with ads to expose the Partido Ng Masa party lies... a big salute to Yolly!



http://www.inq7.net/bus/2002/feb/03/bus_1-1.htm

What's this feisty executive up to now?
By Margie Quimpo-Espino
Inquirer News Service

[zimdude]

http://www.inq7.net/bus/2002/may/26/bus_1-1.htm

By Margie Quimpo-Espino
Inquirer News Service

THE LADY who has become a legend in Philippine advertising could not even land a job in any ad agency when she started out.

McCann Erickson-Philippines chair Emily Altomonte-Abrera recalls knocking on the doors of several ad agencies in the '70s but no one would accept her. Many reasoned that her husband was working with another agency, thus, could pose a

conflict. None bothered to value the rich talent that was obviously in her.

[Gabriela]

We can refer back to the 2,000 years of women's history under the patriarchal society. The society had been used to the stereotype that men work and women stay at home. It doesn't take a flick of a finger to change all that. Men are used to having board meetings on their own. Some of them may still feel uncomfortable with the injection of the opposite sex in the corporate world.

My GM is female, 4 out of 7 department heads/directors are female, but the CEO and President are male. My GM is leaving because of family matters, my director is leaving because she feels she's beginning to neglect the kids. You see, a lot of women feel that domestic matters are their forte, thus, they feel that it is them who should handle and not their husbands. They have to compromise their careers for their home. 'Can't really blame them, though? At least I'm proud to say that "They can do both worlds."

I don't like to inject the argument that men are better than women or women are better than men. It can be an endless debate. I believe it is more about compromises and priorities. I have a budding career, my hubby stays at home. It doesn't mean that I'm better or smarter than him. I actually have a high regard for him. He's going to work full time soon. Let's see what happens...
:rolleyes:

[AnGeLJoLi]

Originally posted by zimdude
Carol Carreon

but of course!! :handsdown: mom ni future sis-in-law ko eh!

[karengkeng]

Marife Zamora of Headstrong (James Martin)