Women on boards bring more women to top jobs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As women struggle to crack corporate America's so-called glass ceiling, they may find more success in breaking the job barrier from the top down, a study said on Wednesday.

The more women on a company's board of directors, the more women are likely to be among that company's senior management, according to the study by Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that researches and helps promote women in business.

Firms with 30 percent of women board directors in 2001 on average had 45 percent more women corporate officers by 2006, compared with ones with no female board members, it said.

Companies with the lowest percentages of women board directors in 2001 on average had 26 percent fewer female corporate officers than those with the highest number five years later, the study said. Those with two or more women board members in 2001 had 25 percent more female corporate officers by 2006 than those with just one woman board member.

"What this shows is that the number of women, or more women, more directors today, predicts pretty reliably more women in leadership five years from now," said Ilene Lang, president of Catalyst.

"There is a very strong correlation and a very strong predictor ability," she said.

The number of Fortune 500 companies with 25 percent or more women on their boards is growing as well, Catalyst said. In 2001, 30 companies fit that criteria and that number grew to 68 in 2007, according to Catalyst data.

"Companies that build up the representation of women on the board and, especially if they're at 25 percent today, this shows them a road map, a path, for how they can increase women in leadership tomorrow," Lang said.

Catalyst said it studied 359 companies in the Fortune 500 in 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007.

Despite fresh statistics showing women are leaving the work force at the same rate as men amid the current economic downturn, Lang said plenty of women are available to move into the top ranks of corporate management.

"There still is a very healthy, robust pipeline of women in the work force," she said. "The supply is much higher than they've been able to realize in those top leadership jobs."

Citing Bureau of Labor Statistics, The New York Times reported this week the rate of women in the work force, growing since the 1960s, had fallen of late due to layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages and other economic woes.

The proportion of women age 25 to 54 with jobs peaked at 74.9 percent in 2000 but last month was 72.7 percent, it said. It said the rate was essentially similar for well-educated or less-educated women, married or never married, white or black.

The Catalyst study, entitled Advancing Women: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers, was sponsored by Chubb Corp, Citizen Communications and IBM Corp.

(Editing by Bill Trott)