Catherwood LibraryILR School

In assessing why a flood of women into the workforce hasn't resulted in their substantial entry into executive ranks, a frequent explanation is that women split the rat race to stay home and tend to their kids. But one observer stoutly finds that answer far too facile. Maura O'Neill, a lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, acknowledges that from 1970 to 2004, the ranks of women in the labor force rocketed to 65 million from 30 million. Yet by 2002, a mere 5 percent of the top corporate officer slots were held by females, with a mere 2 percent of chief executive officers in our 1,000 largest public firms being women. She concludes that exiting to be with family is rarely the bona fide reason, and never the only one.