Reaching the Top: Challenges and Opportunities for Women Leaders
March 3, 2004
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Articles based on this conference were published in the Quarter 1, 2005 issue of Regional Review.
Women have made impressive strides in the business and professional world. They hold half of all jobs in managerial and professional specialty occupations. Eight Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. Women are also increasingly visible in leadership positions across the public, private, and professional sectors.
On the other hand, only 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies have filled a quarter or more of their senior executive positions with women, and roughly 20 percent have no women executives at all. Meanwhile, anecdotes are accumulating that talented women are curtailing their labor force activity, both at senior levels and at key rungs of the corporate and professional ladders.
This conference reviews how highly educated, high-achieving women are faring in today’s workplace. Are they continuing to make progress? What is keeping women out of the top echelons of management? What can organizations do to attract and develop high-achieving women? Is there a role for public policy intervention?
Conference Papers
Drafts of papers are available as PDFs. To view and print PDFs, you need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader software.
- “From the Valley to
the Summit: A Brief History of the Quiet Revolution
that Transformed Women’s Work”
- Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University
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“Women as Labor Force Participants: Effects of Family and Organizational Structure” - Joyce P. Jacobsen, Andrews Professor of Economics, Wesleyan University
“Women as Members of Work Organizations”- Barbara Reskin, S. Frank Miyamoto Professor of Sociology, University of Washington
“Spinning the Top: Gender, Games and Macro Outcomes”- Nancy Folbre, Professor and Chair of Economics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Articles based on this conference were published in the Quarter 1, 2005 issue of Regional Review.
