ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250046
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
WASHINGTON
THE INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM released a study contending that the lack of female corporate leaders results from too small a pool to tap.
A private study challenges the conventional wisdom that women face a ``glass ceiling'' in the corporate world, unable to climb to top positions.
The report, released Wednesday by the conservative Independent Women's Forum, argues that women have not reached the top because there is a dearth of educated and experienced women available.
``Is it reasonable to expect that a woman with only seven consecutive years of work experience - a woman who might have, for example, taken time away from work to raise a family - would surpass another woman or man who has been working for 14 consecutive years?'' the report asks. ``In the executive suite, as in the general job market, experience pays.''
Meanwhile, the number of female executive vice presidents has more than doubled in the past decade while the number of female senior vice presidents has increased by 75 percent, the report concludes.
The report, by researchers at the American Enterprise Institute and Emory University, takes aim at a 1995 report by the federal Glass Ceiling Commission.
That study found that 97 percent of the senior managers of Fortune 1000 industrial companies and Fortune 500 companies were white, and nearly all of them were men. In Fortune 2000 industrial and service companies, 5 percent of senior managers were women, virtually all of them white.
Wednesday's report says that women's earnings approach 98 percent of men's earning among workers aged 27 to 33 who have never had a child.
``Most comparisons fail to take into account underlying factors such as educational attainment, field of employment, work experience and women's personal choices,'' it says.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB