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I.     JAPAN RANKS AMONG ARAB ECONOMIES IN APPOINTING WOMEN TO CORPORATE BOARDS

       A report released by Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI) in Tokyo
today showed Japan’s 100 largest companies lagging well behind other developed economies in appointing women to corporate board seats.  Only 1.4% of board directors in the Japan Top 100 are women, or 17 out of 1,198.  This places Japan’s percentage below Jordan (2%), Oman (2.3%), Kuwait (2.7%) but ahead of Bahrain (1/0%), UAE (0.8%), Qatar (0.3%) and Saudi Arabia (0.1%) – all at the bottom end of 35 countries for which data is available on women directors.

Percentage of Women Board Directors in Japan's Top 100 Companies

       Only 16 of Japan’s largest companies have a female director, which actually signals significant progress.  In 1998 when CWDI issued its first study on Japan, there were just two companies with women on their boards.  Only one company – Sony – has two women directors:  Sakie Fukushima, Chairman of Korn/Ferry International – Japan, and Yukako Uchinaga, CEO of Berlitz International. 

       “To remain competitive and not jeopardize its status as the second largest economy in the world, Japan must utilize its greatest asset – its women,” states Irene Natividad, CWDI Co-Chair and President of the Global Summit of Women.  A Japan Labor Ministry study in 2003 estimated that the country loses 0.6% in annual growth as a consequence of not fully engaging its women in the work force.  With only 4.1% of managers being female, it is not surprising that so few make it to corporate board seats in Japan.  “At a time when there’s a global mood to change the way business is done to avert future economic crises, Japanese companies may wish to look at new "players" – women – who can increase shareholder value with their expertise and insight into a major market globally, the world’s women.  (For the complete report, contact cwdi@globewomen.com.)

II.      U.S. WOMEN CEOS SUFFER DEEPER PAY CUTS DURING RECENT ECONOMIC RECESSION

      Pay inequity plagues women worldwide, and women CEOs are no exception.  In
2008, female CEOs earned just 58% of what their male counterparts were paid.  Their pay packages were slashed three times as much as their male peers, according to the Corporate Library, a corporate governance research firm.

       Total compensation, which includes not only base salary but also bonuses, stock grants, options and other benefits, fell 18.5% for female CEOs, while male CEOs’ pay packages fell 6.1%. Among the CEOs who are top 150 earners in 2008, only one is a woman – Martine Rothblatt of United Therapeutics, who earned $21.8 million in total compensation.

        The study surveyed 2,703 companies for this report, and women accounted for only 3% of the CEOs.  Currently, women are now over 50% of workers, 80% of consumers, 40% of entrepreneurs – important stakeholders who will drive the U.S. economy in the 21st century.  For a listing of women CEOs of Fortune500 companies, log on to www.globewomen.com.  (Contact the Corporate Library, www.thecorporatelibrary.com for survey findings.)

III.     RECORD NUMBER OF WOMEN NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS   

       Indicative of the accomplishments being made by women in various fields, the Nobel Prize Committee has announced that a record five women have been recognized as Nobel Laureates for 2009 – a milestone in Nobel Prize history and for women worldwide. The female honorees are: 

* ADA E. YONATH, NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY – Ms. Yontah, the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize, was born in Jerusalem and received her PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science.  She has worked in Israel her whole life and is the first woman to receive this honor in chemistry since Britain’s Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in 1964.  She is recognized for “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome” and shares the prize for Chemistry with two male colleagues, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz.

* ELIZABETH H. BLACKBURN AND CAROL W. GREIDER, NOBEL PRIZE FOR PSYCHOLOGY OR MEDICINE – Ms. Blackburn and Ms. Greider share the prize for Physiology and Medicine with Jack Szostak.  The three worked together to solve a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation.  Blackburn is Australia’s first woman to be honored with a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  Until now, only eight women have won this prestigious award in medicine, and this marks the first time that two women have won the prize in the same year.   They earned their prize for work done while Greider was a graduate student working with Blackburn, her professor, on telomere research, a field which has drawn a number of women.  Greider attributes this trend to “a jackpot effect, where you have somebody that trains a lot of women, and then there's a slight gravitation of women to work in the labs of other women.”  She argues that it is important to be cognizant of the typical under-representation of women in the sciences and to actively promote their inclusion.   The Australian-born Blackburn currently works in the U.S. at the University of California, San Francisco, while Greider is now at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, left, and Carol Greider pose with a bust of Paul Ehrlich

* HERTA MULLER, NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE – Ms. Müller earns her prize as someone "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."  Born a member of Romania’s German minority, Muller was an outsider under Ceausescu's communist dictatorship.  She eventually settled in Germany in 1987 and continues to write short stories, novels, poems, and essays about the experience of oppression, exile, and conforming to family and state. 

* ELINOR OSTROM, NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS – Ms. Ostrom was recognized by the Nobel Committee "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons."  A Professor at Indiana University where she teaches Political Science, as well as Public and Environmental Affairs, Ostrom spoke of the changing possibilities for women in her field:  “I've attended economic sessions where I've been the only woman in the room, but that is slowly changing and I think there's a greater respect now that women can make a major contribution.”  Ms. Ostrom shares the award with Oliver E. Williamson, a Professor at the University of California-Berkeley, who was awarded for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.  (Sources: www.nobelprize.org, www.ucsf.edu, www.nypost.com, 10/5/2009, www.latimes.com, 10/8/2009, www.nytimes.com, 10/7/2009)

IV. COUNTING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS’ IMPACT:  THE U.S. REPORT

       The Center for Women Business Research released its latest impact report on
women entrepreneurs in the United States and here’s what they found:

       Gwen Martin, the Center’s Executive Director, pointed out that the study underscored yet again that women-owned firms are not a niche market, but a major contributor and player in the overall American economy.  She indicated that the report pointed out the need for training for women business owners in growing their enterprises.  Among women, there is a clear trend towards entrepreneurship, reflecting to some extent the lack of opportunities and flexibility in corporate jobs.  (For full report, log on to www.cfwbr.org.)