2012-2013 UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders

The California 400: Still Dominated by Men

The UC Davis Graduate School of Management in partnership with Watermark publishes the annual “UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders: A Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers.”

Our eighth annual study details the presence of women at the very top of the 400 largest publicly held corporations headquartered in the state. Our findings paint a disappointing picture of female representation on the boards and in the executive suites of these high-profile companies. Combined, our California 400 represent nearly $3 trillion in shareholder value.

Women still hold fewer than one in 10 of the highest-paid executive positions and board seats at the top public firms in California—and over the past eight years there has been no measurable, significant progress in the representation of women in the top decision-making posts of these California 400.

To compete in today’s global marketplace, successful companies need leaders from a variety of backgrounds, skills and experience to make critical strategic and operations decision, but the lack of women in these California public companies is anything but forward-thinking.”

— Dean Steven C. Currall

Key Findings of 2012-2013 Study

• There is only one woman for every nine men among directors and highest-paid executives.
• Only 13 of the 400 largest companies have a woman CEO.
• No company has an all-female (nor gender-balanced) board and management team.
• Almost half (44.8 percent) of California’s companies have no women directors;
  34 percent have only one woman director.
• Among counties with at least 20 companies, San Francisco County has the greatest percentage of women directors (16.3 percent) and Orange County has the least (8.7 percent). Alameda County has the most highest-paid women executives in the study, with 14.4 percent highest-paid women executives working there.
• By industry — firms in the semiconductor and software industries and those located in the Silicon Valley tended to include fewer women on the board and in highest-paid executive positions. Firms in the consumer goods sector had the highest average percentage of women directors and highest-paid executives.
• Of the best known companies in California—Apple, Google, Intel, Cisco, Visa, eBay, DIRECTV, Yahoo!, and PG&E—all had no women among their highest-paid executives at fiscal year-end.
• The 128 Silicon Valley (Santa Clara county) companies, which represent $1.2 trillion, or nearly half the shareholder value of the companies on the list, again showed the worst record for percentage of women executives. Only 6.6 percent of their highest-paid executives are women, and only 8.4 percent of Silicon Valley board members in our study are women.

Media Release

• “Top California Company Leaders Dominated by Men, UC Davis Study Says”: UC Davis Press Release, December 5, 2012
• Audio of Conference Call Featuring Study Author Amanda Kimball, Dean Steven Currall, and Watermark CEO Marilyn Nagel: December 5, 2012.