• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 29, 2004

Women in Communications Making No Progress in Breaking Glass Ceiling

According to the third annual report on women leaders in 25 telecom, 18 publishing and printing, 11 entertainment, and 3 advertising companies, conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, found that women comprise 15% of executive leaders and 12% of board members in top communications companies - numbers virtually unchanged from the previous year.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said "Companies that have fewer women in top positions also tend to have less women-friendly human resources policies. That creates a self-generating cycle, making it less likely that women will be able to move their way up."

For executive positions, the current report showed the percentage of women varied from 50% women (Scholastic Corporation) down to zero. Seven out of the 57 companies (12%) had no women. For boards, the range was from 31% to zero. 18% had no women on their boards. No company contained boards or executive teams that had a majority of women.

Additional findings:

- Publishing companies (18%) edged out telecommunications (16%) and entertainment firms (12%) for the greatest average percent of women in executive positions. The advertising firms had the lowest average number of women in executive positions (3%).

- Publishing companies tended to have more women on their boards than others, with women comprising an average of 18%. That was followed by telecommunications, advertising, and entertainment, which averaged 10%, 9%, and 8% respectively.

- In comparing just the telecommunications and entertainment industries over the last three years (the only industries for which three years of data were collected), the percentage of women on boards moved from 10% to 11% then back down to 10%. Women in executive leadership increased from 11% to 12% and then to 15%.

FCC Commissioner Susan Ness said "The glass ceiling is firmly in place. With few exceptions, we have not moved beyond tokenism in the number of women in top leadership positions of communications companies."

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