Leading Question

>>It’s not a question just for Southwest Florida, where no publicly traded companies have a woman in a CEO position and only a handful of those on Gulfshore Business’ 2008 list of top companies were helmed by women. The region reflects the national scene.

Women held only 15.7 percent of corporate officer positions in the United States in 2008, compared with 15.4 percent in 2007, according to the report by New York-based Catalyst Inc., a nonprofit group working to expand opportunities for women. The organization’s annual census of Fortune 500 companies found that women held 15.1 percent of board director positions, compared with 14.8 percent in 2007. The percentage of women in top earner positions slipped slightly, from 6.7 in 2007 to 6.2 last year.

"We have found that women’s advancement in corporate leadership roles continues to stagnate," says Julie Nugent, director of research for Catalyst. "We have really seen that there has been little growth in these top senior positions. That’s really not acceptable in a time where diversity would be seen as a business imperative."

Of the women who are in charge in Southwest Florida, many got there through years of experience, an entrepreneurial spirit and starting their own businesses. Others are leading family-owned businesses.

Some argue that women-led companies are more common here than many people think, but they tend to be overlooked because the businesses are small and don’t get many headlines. "You just don’t see them spotlighted as much," says Kerri Sisson, chairwoman of the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business. "I do think that women have made great strides here in Southwest Florida, especially in the last 10 years. They’re just not getting the attention or the recognition that men seem to be getting."