Nearly two-thirds of the company's 13,438 employees are women. They hold 50 percent of the 1,700 most senior positions, and five of the 14 directors (35%) are female versus the insurance industry average of 16 percent.
Des Moines insurer Principal Financial Group (www.Principal.com) is ranked #21 in FORTUNE's 100 best companies to work for where the majority of employees get retirement benefits of 100% of income. Principal Financial has a long history of recruiting women: A 1996 Des Moines Sunday Register ad trumpets job openings for "mothers of schoolchildren" with part-time hours and summers off. While those jobs were more secretarial than C-suite, Principal Financial gained a reputation for being a friendly environment where open positions were often filled by word of mouth. The company introduced flexible work schedules in 1974, decades before it became trendy.
Principal Financial's Human Resource Department focuses on programs that support women employees through the more vulnerable points in the "whole career life cycle." For example, in addition to 12 weeks off after the birth of a child, women can now return part-time and build back up to full-time. What's more, Principal Financial has invested $8 million in a subsidized early-childhood learning center. Principal Financial's James DeVries says those measures cost the company very little. "It's a virtuous cycle," he says. "Just about every metric you review around employee productivity has increased: Our sales results are higher than they have ever been, our investment performance is great, our stock price has tripled."
Often unspoken gender stereotypes hold women back more than antiquated policies, notes Lois Joy, a research director at women's think tank Catalyst. But at Principal Financial, employees aren't forced to choose between flexibility and furthering their careers, notes Ellen Lamale, the company's chief actuary, who was promoted to VP while she was working part-time. Or there's the case of Valarie Vest, a regional client service director. Midway through her second maternity leave, her bosses called, offering her a promotion. While some might have assumed that more responsibility was ill-suited to a new mom, Vest's supervisors simply thought she was the best person for the job. She quickly accepted, and now, two years later, she manages ten people. "I don't ever assume anyone might or might not want an opportunity," she says.
Principal Financial is an exception to the lack of progress for women, in terms of pay and power, at many of the biggest companies in the U.S. This inequality, along with other memes of gender capabilities, shapes perceptions about who can or should be a leader.
Some major consulting firms and global industrial enterprises evaluate managers on how well they retain and advance women and minorities. IBM, which does business in 170 countries, "wants a work force as broad and diversified as its customer base," says Ron Glover, vice president, global workforce diversity.
"As they become globally integrated, companies are becoming more diverse and inclusive, eliminating barriers for women and minorities and accommodating cultural differences. These companies understand that to succeed their work force needs to be as diverse as their customers. Over the past 10 years, IBM has seen a 393 percent increase in the number of its women executives," says Emily Benner, development director of IBM Systems and Technology Group, who is active in mentoring IBM employees and students within the Rochester, MN community.
The 2008 National Association of Female Executives' (NAFE) Top Companies for Executive Women are (in alphabetical order by category):
THE TOP 10
ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Northbrook, IL
AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY, New York, NY
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY, New York, NY
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE COMPANY, New York, NY
IBM CORPORATION, Armonk, NY
LIZ CLAIBORNE INC, New York, NY
THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY, New York, NY
PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP, Des Moines, IA
PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY, Cincinnati, OH
PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, Newark, NJ
THE TOP COMPANIES
AETNA INC., Hartford, CT
CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY, Camden, NJ
GENERAL MILLS, Minneapolis, MN
HSBC – NORTH AMERICA, Prospect Heights, IL
KRAFT FOODS INC., Northfield, IL
MACY’S INC., Cincinnati, OH
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL INC., Washington, DC
METLIFE INC., Long Island City, NY
OFFICE DEPOT, Delray Beach, FL
PATAGONIA INC., Ventura, CA
SALLIE MAE, Reston, VA
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Bloomington, IL
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC., Dallas, TX
WAL-MART STORES INC., Bentonville, AR
XEROX CORPORATION, Stamford, CT
THE TOP NONPROFITS
BAPTIST HEALTH SOUTH FLORIDA, Coral Gables, FL
BON SECOURS RICHMOND HEALTH SERVICE, Richmond, VA
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, NY
MIDMICHIGAN HEALTH, Midland, MI
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM, Richmond, VA
Methodology: NAFE looked beyond corporate programs and policies purportedly dedicated to advancing women to results, examining the number of women in each company overall, in senior management, and on its board of directors. To be named to the NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women, companies with a minimum of two women on the board completed a comprehensive application that focused 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.
Source: FORTUNE February 4, 2008, The Wall Street Journal February 25, 2008 and "Math, science mentors build future economy" by Emily Benner in the Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN February 19, 2008 and Working Mother Media, Inc., www.NAFE.com
For more about executive women, go to: www.ExecutiveWoman.info