Here's A Shock for Women

Screen 51 of 52

"There's progress, however slow, in every dimension year after year," said Sheila Wellington, president of Catalyst. "And this year, despite the poor economy, the number of women executives keeps going up, and that's heartening."

Female leaders in corporate America include Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard Co., S. Marce Fuller of Mirant Corp., Patricia F. Russo of Lucent Technologies Inc., Anne M. Mulcahy of Xerox Corp., Andrea Jung of Avon Products Inc. and Marion O. Sandler of Golden West Financial Corp.

The prospects for ambitious women in the District are brighter than in other regions in the country, according to Catalyst, which reported that at the two Fortune 500 firms based in the nation's capital, the Federal National Mortgage Association (better known as Fannie Mae) and Danaher Corp., more than a third -- 38.6 percent -- of corporate officers are women.

"Corporate America has awakened to the notion that it can't afford to waste talent," said Jamie S. Gorelick, Fannie Mae's vice chairman, one of three female vice chairmen in the United States. "We get a tremendous amount out of women who are senior executives at our company. There's a critical mass of us."

Gorelick said that such "critical mass" is essential for women to have enough of a "comfort level" to move forward aggressively in their own careers. She credited Fannie Mae's chairman, Franklin D. Raines, and former chairman Jim Johnson with instituting recruitment and retention policies targeting women.