Should Women Avoid Male-Dominated Companies?

What’s the Latest Development?

Women seeking high-level business positions should blacklist companies which do not already have females on their board, said Anne Mulcahy, former Xerox C.E.O. and Chairman. Speaking this week at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Mulcahy said that large firms have already had their chance to integrate women into the upper levels of authority and that the absence of females on any board of directors should be taken as a warning sign that the company is not forward-thinking.

What’s the Big Idea?

Women have made significant inroads in the world’s globalized business culture. As of March 2011, there were just 23 global companies without a female director. But the United States, where only around 18 percent of boards have female members, lags behind European countries where as much as 40 percent of a board of directors is composed of women. Mulcahy’s warning that male-dominated companies may be resistant to forward thinking must be reconciled with the fact that women may still benefit from taking new opportunities.