"Most companies have not dispelled myths about women's commitment, about their risk quotient, willingness to relocate, and ability to manage men..."
Betty Spence, President of the National Association for Female Executives

The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) takes a bottom line approach to measuring a company's performance. How many women are in executive positions and how much money do they make?

According to NAFE, lack of targeted training, not lack of ambition, blocks women's advancement to the highest ranks of corporate America. (rank your company here)

"Only eight women chief executives are running Fortune 500 companies because most companies primarily groom men for the top jobs," states Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives. "Where the best companies for women stand out is their focus on moving women into the historically male province of profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibility," she says. (see list of corporate initiatives)

NAFE recently announced the "NAFE Top 30 Companies for Executive Women." For the sixth consecutive year, Avon Products reigns as the best company for women, with exemplary programs preparing women for top positions.

Scholastic, Liz Claiborne, WellPoint, Hewlett-Packard, Charming Shoppes, Kraft Foods, The New York Times Company, IBM, and Prudential Financial round out the Top 10 companies on this year's list. (see full list)

Among this year's winners, NAFE found outstanding manufacturing, publishing, high tech, and consumer products companies where women have moved into positions as chief operating officer, managing director, general manager, or presidents of operations here and abroad. Women run the show at Avon, Charming Shoppes, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox. At Liz Claiborne and Scholastic, women dominate the ranks up and down except for the top spot.

"Most companies have not dispelled myths about women's commitment, about their risk quotient, willingness to relocate, and ability to manage men or run a manufacturing operation," says Spence, "so women do not get offered the opportunities that lead to the corner office. Companies that 'get it' hold managers accountable for moving women into P&L jobs. They should make any woman's short list of places to work."

Therefore in selecting the Top 30 this year, NAFE focused on the number of women in the management pipeline, as well as those already holding senior positions. It also looked for programs and policies that ensure training and job rotation and enforce accountability for women's success. Even among the Top 30, NAFE found only a handful with formal rotation geared to women, without which women will not catch up.

NAFE finds that companies rarely track gender statistics for P&L positions and anticipates that breaking out these numbers will place the issue on the table.

Women also have to catch up to men in compensation: among the 150 top earner slots in the NAFE Top 30, only 17 percent are women, with Liz Claiborne and Scholastic boasting a majority. However, 70 percent of companies on the list have three or more female board directors - and #1 company Avon has a majority.

Methodology: To be named to the NAFE Top 30 Companies for Executive Women, companies with a minimum of two women on the board complete a comprehensive application that focuses on the number of women in senior ranks (compared to men and to the company population), including questions about the programs and policies which support women's advancement.

The 2004 "NAFE Top 30 Companies for Executive Women" (listed alphabetically):

Aetna, Hartford, CT
Avon Products, New York, NY
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New York, NY
Charming Shoppes, Bensalem, PA
Compuware, Farmington Hills, MI
DuPont, Wilmington, DE
Fannie Mae, Washington DC
Federated Department Stores, Cincinnati, OH
FleetBoston Financial, Boston, MA
Kraft Foods, Northfield, IL
Gannett Co. Inc, McLean, VA
General Mills, Minneapolis, MN
Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, CA
IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY
Liz Claiborne, Inc., North Bergen, NJ
Marriott International, Inc., Washington, DC
Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ
Nordstrom, Seattle, WA
New York Times Company, New York, NY
Office Depot, Delray Beach, FL
PepsiCo, Purchase, NY
Phoenix Companies, Hartford, CT
Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA
Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, OH
Prudential Financial Inc, Newark, NJ
Scholastic, New York, NY
Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, IL
Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN
WellPoint Health Networks Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT

CORPORATE INITIATIVES:
•Rotation programs
Rotation programs train employees in a variety of operations and P&L tasks and offer broad insight into the business as a whole. Participating employees get critical line experience preparing for senior executive positions.

WellPoint: Offers 24-month formal rotation program that identifies and trains high-potential women for P&L responsibility, including specialized courses in finance, IT, operations, and actuarial criteria. Each candidate participates in three six-to-nine-month rotations into different businesses and geographies, reporting to a direct report of the CEO. Twenty women run major business units at WellPoint, two more than last year.

•Foreign opportunities
Running an International operation serves as an important stepping stone to the highest levels of senior management at many global companies.

Avon: In 2002, the company launched their international women's leadership form, understanding that for women to run operations in other countries, they had to know how to solve business problems in other cultural contexts. In this setting, women hashed out operating problems.

•Mentoring for Women Moving Up

IBM: Lacking enough women executives in Canada to match up with first-and second-rung women managers who craved time from mentors. The company created teams of six women with two executives - one man and one woman. A surprise outcome was that the women in the team created their own network and started peer mentoring.

•Targeted training:
Lack of training, not lack of ambition, holds women back from the corner office. Where the best companies for women stand out is their focus on moving women into the historically male province of profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibility.

HP: The company's Advanced Development Program (ADP) helps women focus on their goals and arms them with the skills to conquer their next assignments. Women say that the ADP experience gives them the financial knowledge, the eye of senior management, and a champion on the lookout for their perfect opportunity

Liz Claiborne: The company offers a series of tailored courses that all associates may take. They offer a two-day immersion business simulation that offers a unique perspective on how to think strategically while putting out each day's fires. The course brings together several five-person teams, each responsible for managing a functional area through perils and crises to a profitable end.