Career Mastered Top 50 Companies for Women

Our “Top 50” Companies for women come from extensive research on women in the board room, the overall percentage of female employees, female managers and executives, and results relating to the commitment and actions that a company is taking to make women’s advancement a part of the overall company culture.

“Behind every successful man is a good woman” was a common phrase in the first half of the twentieth century. Those were the days when women “knew their place” – in the kitchen, and in the bedroom. This is not to say that women didn’t contribute outside the home – they did – but it was rare for a woman to have employment, and rarer still rise to any managerial position, much less the C Suite.

During World War II, General Electric offered on-the-job engineering training for women with degrees in mathematics and physics, but only because the war created a serious shortage of engineers as men were drafted into the armed forces. When the men came home, the women were sent home. Even in the late 50s and 60s, when large numbers of women began to choose careers beyond being a “homemaker,” the options were slim. Women didn’t become executives, astronauts, physicians. They became teachers, secretaries, nurses.

Those few women who were major contributors were often kept quiet, behind the scenes. No credit was given to the woman whose World War II era design became the basis for what we today call WiFi – even though that woman was also an internationally recognized film star named Hedy Lamar. Fifty years ago, everyone knew the names John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins. But Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan’s names were not on the tip of anyone’s tongue. Yet, without their genius as mathematicians at what would later become NASA, John Glenn’s 1962 mission as the first American to orbit the earth would have ended in disaster. They were African-American women working in a segregated office. It took more than a half century for their story to be told.

We’ve come a long way in the century since we won the right to vote. Today’s women are a large percentage of the American workforce and economy, many stepping into executive positions within major corporations. We’re moving out of the “bored” room and into the Board Room.

Our Methodology

Career Mastered Magazine conducted extensive external research of current statistical public data of Fortune 500 companies, top large, medium and small private companies, and large and medium non-profit companies. We analyzed the percentage of women working within these companies, the percentage of executive-level women within the company, the percentage of supplier diversity contracting spent with women and minorities, and the percentages of diversity and inclusion of women and minorities in hiring and advancement to board levels.

Companies with the highest percentages of overall diverse women, executive level women, board positions for women, and procurement with women and minorities were chosen from various industries.

We analyzed data and consistent patterns that showed a commitment to diversity and inclusion on various Top 50/100 Lists. We also made sure there was a commitment to implementing diversity and inclusion programs and policies.

We reviewed key results relating to the company’s commitment and actions taken to make women’s advancement a part of the overall culture and fiber. This included the establishment of diversity departments, diversity councils, mentoring programs, and leadership opportunities. We wanted to make sure recruitment and outreach initiatives were geared toward diverse populations and hiring initiatives/practices that included diversity.

The Top Ten

While every one of the Top 50 companies deserves applause, we give special notice to our Top Ten, whose involvement with and commitment to women in the workplace is exemplary. Representing a variety of industries, the Career Mastered Top Ten Companies for women are, in alphabetical order:

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About the Author:

 

Linda Anger is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist whose business and creative works have been featured in  publications such as Michigan PRIME, Black Engineer Magazine, Profiles in Diversity Journal, MultiCultural Law Journal, Mused-the Bella Online Journal, Still Crazy Magazine, Sweeping the Floors in the Full Crumb Cafe, and the Almost Touching Anthology. She is the founder and president of The Write Concept, Inc., a marketing communications company based in SE Michigan.

 

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