love this - I was listening to an article about it on NPR earlier. however, I had a thought: I feel like this says as much about the popularity of the names James, Robert, John and WIlliam in birthdates between 1950 and 1970 as it does about women. You'll note that the names James, Robert, John and WIlliam are in the top 10 of each year in that 20 year period. Indeed, They are all in the top 10 until William finally gets booted out in 1976. emphasis mine. I think that this, while less headline grabbing, is much more useful and pertinent information.Our Glass Ceiling Index is inspired by a recent Ernst & Young report, which computed analogous numbers for board directors. That report yielded an index score of 1.03 for directors, meaning that for every one woman, there were 1.03 Jameses, Roberts, Johns and Williams — combined — serving on the boards of S.&P. 1500 companies.
Even as this ratio falls short of the score among chief executives, it remains astonishingly high. It also understates the impermeability of the glass ceiling. After all, most companies understand that an all-male board looks bad, and so most of them appoint at least one woman, although only a minority bother to appoint more than one. Far fewer of these large firms — currently one in 25 — are run by a woman serving as C.E.O.