Michigan businesswomen lag behind in top job parity

Female parity lacking in top power positions, says Women's Index report

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Female executives may make up nearly half of Michigan's professionals and managers, but they've yet to join their male peers at parity in positions of top power.

And that underutilization of women at the top of corporations is hurting the state's overall business competitiveness.

That's according to the 2009 Women's Leadership Index released Monday by the Detroit-based Inforum Center for Leadership, an alliance for business women.

"Research shows there is a strong correlation between how well top corporations develop and promote women leaders and how successful those corporations are in the marketplace," said Inforum CEO Terry Barclay in a statement accompanying the study. "If Michigan's companies lag behind when it comes to utilizing talented women, they could be at a big disadvantage compared to their peers and competitors."

Barclay said that women, by and large, are the biggest decision-drivers of consumer purchases; and in a consumer-driven economy, employing women in decision-making positions of companies makes sense.

The index report, published annually since 2003 and tabulated this year by the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, took a look at 100 Michigan companies in three categories: Fortune 500 companies (there were 19 in the index), those worth more than $100 million but not Fortune 500 status (a total of 41) and those worth less than $100 million (making up the remaining 40).

The report's authors then awarded points based on the percentage of women making up a company's board of directors and among its top five officers.

The top-scorer was Cheboygan-based banking firm CNB Corp. Among the seven other "most valuable players" named in the index were Detroit-based software developer Compuware and Bloomfield Hills-based Pulte Homes, the nation's largest homebuilder.

Compuware has been an MVP in the index for all six years of its publication.

Fifty-eight other companies in the index were labeled "in the game," meaning women made up at least a portion of the firms' top leadership; 35 are "on the sidelines," meaning few, if any, women were in positions of power.

The index report showed the number of female directors has remained relatively stable since 2003, but the number of women executives has fallen in the past two years.

The study's research also showed Michigan women occupy more top jobs in industries such as real estate, finance and technology, while the once-mainstay automotive sector has been more heavily dominated by men.

"While it is heartening to see some progress, such as in the number of female CEOs, clearly there is a lot of progress to be made," Barclay said.