The 10 Worst Places For Women To Work (in corporate America)

[DainBramaged]

Women make up over 50% of the US workforce now, but the Bureau of the Census shows that women make, on average, only 77% of what men do based on measurements of annual salaries.
24/7 Wall St. looked at research about the Fortune 500 to find the worst places for women to work. The data used is from Catalyst, a non-profit organization which works to promote the status of women in business. Our analysis compared the Fortune 500 women who are executive officers as defined by the SEC to data on the number of female members of boards of directors at the same universe of companies. This is the first time these two lists have been cross-referenced for a public analysis.


The companies on the 24/7 Wall St. Worst Places for Women to Work list have no women on their boards and no women in senior management. Any company on the list would have to: 1) completely lack sensitivity to the issues of women in the work place, or 2) have enough misgivings about women to insure that all the people who have any meaningful place in running their companies have to be men. It is hard to say whether these companies are “female-free” at the top tiers because of misogyny or dull-wittedness. The practice of equal opportunity is missing at all of these companies.

Our analysis makes an assumption, but we believe it is a fair one. A company with no women on its board or in senior management is extremely unlikely to be concerned about the issue of disparity in pay by gender and is likely to perform worse than the national census average in terms of what it pays its non-executive female management and its women rank-and-file employees.

1. Phillip Morris (PM) is one of the largest tobacco companies in the world and has nearly 75,000 employees. Women are often assigned to run human resources and corporate communications departments at companies where men dominate the management, and PM is no exception. The highest ranking corporate executive is Daniele Regorda, vice president of human resources. Phillip Morris claims that the company is “always striving to broaden the diversity of our workforce and are continuously working to identify, hire and retain the best qualified individuals, wherever they are located or whatever their background.” No wonder they call him the Marlboro Man. Nine board members, zero women.

2. Icahn Enterprises (IEP) is a diversified holding company with around 47,000 employees. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is the firm’s chairman. Women looking for executive positions at the company can contact Icahn Enterprises, 767 Fifth Avenue, 47th Floor, New York, NY, 10153. Icahn can afford a female board member.

3. Virgin Media (VMED) is in the mobile telephone and broadcast business, and has 13,380 employees. Virgin is based in the UK and is part of the Richard Branson collection of companies. Branson is a media star among global corporate chiefs. The firm has 11 directors, all of which are, you guessed it, men. The senior female member of the Virgin Media management is Elisa Nardi, Chief People Officer, or head of human resources.

http://247wallst.com/2010/03/01/the-10-worst-companies-for-women-to-work/?mod=mktw

[Cerridwen]

1. Kick and recommend.

I'm about to head off to bed but I had to try to keep it on the front page.

:kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. Happens with so many medium- and small-sized companies too. n/t

[DainBramaged]

3. The auto industry is very very misogynistic too.

It's next to impossible to find women in the salesforce let alone in executive positions. Clerical, of course, that's their lot in life!

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Yes, and in any meeting, look at who's expected to make and bring the coffee.

Such a typical sight: a meeting room full of men at the table and a woman "manning" the refreshments.

[DainBramaged]

9. As long as they don't endorse file sharing....

[Wizard777]

4. #1 on the Top Ten List of worst places for women to work.

1) David Letterman's office!

Oh! Paul play us some sexual harassment music.

You can't sexually harass the willing yeah yeah. She said, Yeeeeeeah.

:wow:


:rofl:

[WinkyDink]

6. The parenthetical phrase in the OP title answers the question.

[borderjumpers]

7. Nourishing the Planet Featured on Eco-Chick

Check out this interview featured in http://eco-chick.com/2010/03/5359/eco-chick%E2%80%99s-heroines-for-the-planet-danielle-nierenberg/">Eco-Chick about the Worldwatch Institute's http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/">Nourishing the Planet's on-the-ground research in Africa by Stephanie Rogers:

If it’s true that there are sayers and there are doers, Danielle Nierenberg falls firmly into the latter camp. Danielle is currently traveling through sub-saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in sustainable agriculture and blogging about it at http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/">WorldWatch.org.

A Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Nourishing the Planet, Danielle is a widely cited expert in sustainable agriculture issues and the spread of factory farming. She knows better than most of us how our eating habits affect the world, and the experiences she shares on her blog will blow you away.

So of course, Danielle fits right in as an Eco Chick Heroine for the Planet! I talked to her about women in agriculture, global food issues and what we can all do to help.

SR: We were surprised to learn through your blog,http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet">Nourishing the Planet, that 80% of sub-Saharan farmers in Africa are women and that women make up the majority of farmers worldwide. What are some of the unique problems that female farmers face?

DN: Although women produce most of the food and raise most of the livestock in Africa, they rarely have access to land tenure, credit, agricultural extension services, and are under-represented in farmers groups, associations, unions. But by increasing women’s participation and representation in these groups, women and men farmers alike can work together to improve gender awareness, as well as improve their access to loans and agricultural inputs and land tenure. As a result, women are able to earn a greater income, which translates into better nutrition for their families. But womens voices often go unheard, or even ignored, and that has to change.

SR: How has your focus on sustainable agriculture influenced your own eating habits?

DN: I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, but the more I learn about the global food system, the more interested I become in knowing where my food comes from and how it was produced. I think it’s important to put a face to your food and know not only how the animals you eat were treated, but if the farmers who raised the vegetables and other foods you eat were given a fair price for their crops and if the workers who processed and packaged the food you eat had safe working conditions and were paid a fair wage.

SR: As much as we all care about global food issues and how they affect human health and the environment, sometimes we’re not sure how to help – and sometimes, the problems of people in third-world countries can seem so far away. What can we do to contribute, even if it’s just in a small way?

DN: This is a question we’re asking as part of our Nourishing the Planet project: Why should wealthy foodies in the United States and Europe care about hunger in Africa?

The foodie community in the United States and Europe are a powerful force in pushing for organically grown and local foods in hospitals and schools, more farmers markets, and better welfare of livestock and I think that some of that energy can be harnessed to promote more diversity and resilience in the food system. Right now, the world depends on just a few crops–maize, wheat, and rice–which are vulnerable not only to price fluctuations, but the impacts of climate change. Many indigenous crops–including millet, sorghum, sweet potato, and many others–however, are not only more nutritious than monoculture crops, but also more resilient to adverse weather events and disease.

By supporting–and funding–NGOs and research institutions, such as Slow Food International, Heifer International, and the World Vegetable Center, wealthy foodies can help ensure that farmers in sub-Saharan Africa help maintain agricultural biodiversity.

SR: Did you have any moments of extreme culture shock when you first got to Africa?

DN: We started this trip in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a place most Americans associate with war and hunger because of the famines of the mid 1980s and 1990s. Even today, more than 6 million people in Ethiopia are at risk for starvation so I think I had mentally prepared myself for seeing very desperate people. Instead, though, I found farmers and NGO workers full of hope for agriculture in their country. I think that’s been my greatest surprise about the continent in general — how vibrant, entrepreneurial, friendly, positive, and alive people are here. Six months and thirteen countries later, I’m now in Antananarivo, Madagascar, feeling more hopeful than ever that things are really changing.

The trip is surprising in a lot of different ways. While we’ve seen extreme poverty and environmental degradation during our trip, we’ve also been impressed by the level of knowledge about things like hunger, climate change, HIV/AIDS and other issues from the farmers we meet. The people in many of these countries know better than anyone how to solve the problems their facing, they just need attention–and support–from the international community. In Africa, maybe more than anywhere else we’ve traveled, a little funding can go a long way (if used the right way).

SR: What’s your biggest goal for the Nourishing the Planet trip?

DN: We’ve made a point during this trip to focus on stories of hope and success in agriculture. Most of what Americans hear about Africa is famine, conflict and HIV/AIDS, and we wanted to highlight the things that are going well on the continent. There’s a lot of hope out here – a lot of individuals and organizations doing terrific work – but that doesn’t necessarily translate into them receiving resources or funding.

We hope to create a roadmap for funders and the donor community and shine a big spotlight on the projects and innovations that seem to be working, so that they can be scaled up or replicated in other places. Please check out our site and sign up for our weekly newsletter — and if you know anyone or project we should visit on the continent, please email me at [e-mail].

Thanks Danielle, and many thanks as well to http://www.flickr.com/photos/41893817@N04/4140237995/in/set-72157622908136142">Bernard Pollack for the beautiful photos!

[LuckyLib]

8. It is always interesting to note how many companies put the woman up front to be interviewed by the

press when the shit hits the fan. I always love the women testifying before congress from some big company, or in the hot seat on 60 Minutes. She represents .0042 of the executive workforce, but there she is, right up front to face the music in public!