Amanda Kimball, UC Davis Graduate School of Management research specialist, weighed in on women in large public companies in a recent Sacramento Bee article. Kimball has authored the last five annual studies of women in top positions at the top 400 largest corporations in California.
The article looked at the increasing trend of women-owned firms in Sacramento, something that is also happening across California and the United States at large. The number of women-owned firms in Sacramento is up to 59,200 from 56,700 in 2014, according to the 2015 “State of Women-Owned Businesses Report” commissioned by American Express OPEN. The report also showed an increase in revenue in women-owned businesses from $8.5 billion in 2014 to $9.4 billion in 2015.
In spite of this evidence of more and more women succeeding in the world of business, women tended to not fare as well when working in large public corporations. The latest “Study of California Women Business Leaders” showed that women only hold approximately one in nine executive and board positions among California’s largest 400 public companies and continue to earn less than their male peers.
However, Kimball believes that this inequality in large public companies may have helped the trend of women-owned firms in Sacramento. “I think it’s possible that women who were frustrated in the public corporate world are turning around and starting their own companies,” she said in the article. When asked if she thought that female-operated firms will grow to the point where they start affecting the status quo of female corporate leadership, she responded, “I think that if it happens, it will be a long process.”