This absence of female workers creates a problem by hindering diversity and negatively affecting companies, said Sharon Canter, chair of Milwaukee Women inc.,”A report by Milwaukee Women inc found gender diversity in the workplace made little progress in 2007 because of a lack of women in leadership and executive positions.

This absence of female workers creates a problem by hindering diversity and negatively affecting companies, said Sharon Canter, chair of Milwaukee Women inc.

"Diversity enables a company to better reflect the wide range of customers and shareholders they have," she said. "It's about bringing different voices with different perspectives together. It's not just about equalizing."

After reviewing 50 publicly traded Wisconsin-based companies, the report concluded companies have increased the number of female board members by 1.5 percent over the past two years. At this rate, it would take 60 years for the number women to catch up to the number of men in these positions, Canter said.

"Numbers are changing at a very slow pace," she said. "One- third of companies still have no women on their boards. In 2007, that is a major statement because there are a lot of very qualified women out there."

Milwaukee Women inc worked with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to compile data for the report based on information from annual reports submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Canter said.

According to the data, for every eight men in corporate leadership positions, there is one woman. This means that women make up only 12 percent of directors and executive officers.

In the six-year period that Milwaukee Women inc has studied this issue, the number of female executives has remained relatively unchanged, Canter said.

Since 2005, only 11 of the 50 companies added female directors and eight of those companies already had at least one woman in a director position. The companies that added female directors for the first time were Weyco Group Inc., A.O. Smith Corp. and Regal Beloit Corp. During the same time, a decrease in positions resulting in zero female directors was observed at Kohl's Corp., MGIC Investment Corp. and School Specialty Inc., according to the report.

Milwaukee Women inc "only looked at our holding company, MGIC Investment Corp.," said Katie Monfre, corporation relations director for MGIC. "Ninety-eight percent of our profits actually come through our writing company, the Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corp., and we do have women in leadership there. It's deceptive to just look at our holding company."

According to Monfre, the Milwaukee-based investment company employs seven male executives with an average number of 20 years experience.

"We have a very low turnover rate," she said. "There's just not much opportunity to promote anyone, male or female."

Monfre said the female board member who resigned this year had been on the board since 1991 and left to pursue other opportunities. The man who replaced her previously worked as a chief accountant for the SEC.

"Because of how regulated our industry is, you don't turn down someone like that," she said. "We looked at others, but he was the most qualified."

Though qualifications play a part in hiring, John Cotton, professor of management at Marquette University, said discrimination and societal roles are also factors. He said he cites the manufacturing industry and the conservative nature of area businesses as reasons for slow progress in workplace diversity.

"Gender diversity tends to be less likely in manufacturing, which dominates Wisconsin business," he said. "The business community of Milwaukee also tends to be relatively conservative so I would not expect it to lead the way in terms of gender equity."

Despite this poor climate for diversity, Cotton said change could happen.

"There should be more women," he said. "(By not hiring women), you're missing out on a lot of ideas and intelligence."

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