A new study of California's largest companies finds that the software and semiconductor sectors had the lowest percentages of women among their highest-paid executives, with marks of 4.4% and 2.7%, respectively.
But, executive compensation for women wasn't the only issue uncovered; the University of California at Davis study also shows that women are under-represented or go entirely missing in corporate boardrooms in the state, particularly at tech companies.
The 2011 UC Davis study, California Women Business Leaders: A Census of Women Directors and Highest-Paid Executives, notes that 136 of
California's 400 largest companies have no women directors or women among their highest-compensated executives.
And, among these companies where males rule the roost and shut out women from their top ranks, 40% of them are high-tech companies.
Thus, in many of the largest high-tech companies in the state, women have no decision-making role at the corporate level.
When it comes to travel technology companies inside California and elsewhere, it's no surprise that astute observers have wondered where are all the women?
It would be of little solace then that this seventh annual UC Davis study shows that issues about the scarcity of women in executive ranks in the state impacts the gamut of industries, albeit to varying degrees.
The real estate industry has the highest percentage of women directors at 14% while the semiconductor sector in California has just 5.2%, according to the study.
As previously stated, the software and semiconductor sectors had the lowest percentages of women among top-compensated executives, with marks of 4.4% and 2.7%, respectively.
Among other data points, the study ranked the 400 companies by a combined percentage of women directors and women among highest-paid executives.
There were no pure-play travel or tourism companies among California's 400 largest companies, but the following is the ranking and percentage of women directors and women among highest-compensated executives among some of the largest companies in the state which dabble in travel or travel technology:
- 6. Hewlett-Packard, 35.3%;
- 28. Northrop Grumman, 23.5%;
- 400. Air Lease Corp., 0.0%;
Meanwhile, the overall status of women executives in California’s largest companies isn’t exactly undergoing any kind of rapid tranformation.
The percentage of women occupying board seats (10%) in 2011 was the same as in the 2010 study while the percentage of women in the highest paid executive posts (CEO, CFO and the three other highest-compensated positions) stood at 9.2% in the 2011 study, up from 8.8% the previous year.