ABSTRACT
The most recent period has signaled another breakthrough. Although one woman CEO (Pat Russo at Alcatel Lucent) resigned, and another sold her company out from underneath her (Paula Reynolds at Safeco Insurance), boards of directors appointed five other women CEOs at Fortune 500 companies, bringing the number of women CEOs to 15.1 Traditionally male-dominated companies in male-dominated industries (oil and gas, information technology, and paints and chemicals) appointed three of these women, reinforcing a tentative teaching of Chapter 6 (“Go Where They Aren’t”). The two other women who have become CEOs in 2008-09 have done so in fields historically receptive to women in senior management, namely, food products and retailing.
