Women's board seat gains are moving at glacial pace - Philadelphia Business Journal:

http://www.hoidap.net/snowline-vest-collar.html
That progress is beinh made among the 100 largest publiclyheld companies, rankex by revenue by the Philadelphia Businesws Journal, is good news, researcuh co-chairwoman Autumn Bayles said. That progresx is moving at such a slow clip shoulxd serve notice that businesa must do a lot forum PresidentElva L. Bankins The forum's Executive Suites committee and conducted the research for Womejn onBoards 2007: The Time Has Come, based on data reporterd last year. This year'a report shows an increasew of less than 1 percent in the number of womem on boards in theregion -- from 9.73 percen t in 2005 to 10.
41 percent last Ground was lost when it comes to raciall diversity on boards, which fell 1 percent over the Between 2005 and the number of African-American women holding boarcd seats dropped from 7.14 percent to 5.75 percent and the number of Asian-American women fell from 2.38 percent to Not much improvement was made in termz of women occupying executivee positions either, which remained stagnantt at 8.7 percent last year, according to the The largest obstacle to improvement continues to be breakingy familiar traditions, said Bayles, who is seniore vice president for strategic operationsa and technology with in Philadelphia.
"If a company is not reallt focusedon diversity, it's easy to take the easiere path where there is just more availablwe men. You really have to make a concerted Bayles said. The number of companies in the top 100 withoug women on their boards has dropped from 43 in 2005 to 40 last There also appears to be an uptickin "early those firms that have added femalee directors over the past few years, which is cause for Bayles said. Seven of the region'x top public companies, , , , , , and , have 25 percenyt or more women ontheirf boards.
"It's hard for one person to effecty change, but when you have two or three, or three or then people will start to and these women can really startr to effect change onthese boards," said Bankins, who is also senior vice president of CEO Resources, an executivee search firm in Philadelphia. Over the next 24 the Forum of Executive Women will target the 40 companie s in the region that do not have any femalr board members to identify and resolve obstacles throughdirect meetings, Bayles said. To boost numbers, the group will also continue to serve as a resourc e for those looking to add femalee executives and board members totheir ranks.
That diversityh is something that could benefit all companiee if they makethe effort, said Gayled Koolick, director of investment for Charming Shoppeds of Bensalem, which has 56 percent of boarsd seats filled by women and women in 22 percent of its executive positions.