J&J Is a Top Company for Women Executives

Where are the best places to work for women executives? According to the National Association of Women Executives, Johnson & Johnson cracks the top 10, while Avon, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble are on the list as well.

And, if more women were at the helm of companies, the U.S. may not have endured a lengthy economic meltdown, according to the group, which noted that women tend to strategize long-term and therefore participate in less risky behavior than men.

Even management consultants are weighing in on the battle of the sexes.

“Companies with higher numbers of women at senior levels are also companies with better organizational and financial performance,” reports global business consultancy McKinsey, based on its recent Women Matter studies.

And the nonprofit Catalyst documents stronger performance at companies with three or more women on the board. Even Wall Street backs this concept: Stocks of the 12 Fortune 500 companies with women CEOs rose an average of 50% in 2009, compared to the benchmark for U.S. stocks, the S&P 500, which rose an average of 25%.

But perhaps, the battle of the sexes would be better fought another day. For now, here’s a look at the best places for women executives, according to the NAWE.

The Top 10
Abbott – Abbott Park, IL
Aetna – Hartford, CT
American Express Company – Suwanee, GA
Fleishman-Hillard – St. Louis, MO
General Mills – Minneapolis, MN
IBM– Austin, TX
Johnson & Johnson – New Brunswick, NJ
Marriott International – Bethesda, MD
Office Depot – Delray Beach, FL
WellPoint – Indianapolis, IN

The Top Companies
Allstate Insurance – Northbrook, IL
American Electric Power – Columbus, OH
AstraZeneca– Wilmington, DE
AT&T – Dallas, TX
Avon Products – New York, NY
Bank of America – Charlotte, NC
Bristol-Myers Squibb – Plainsboro, NJ
Chubb & Son – Warren, NJ
Cisco – San Jose, CA
Colgate-Palmolive – New York, NY
Diageo North America – Norwalk, CT
Dow Chemical – Midland, MI
DuPont – Wilmington, DE
Eli Lilly and Company – Indianapolis, IN
Grant Thornton LLP – Chicago, IL
Hewitt Associates – Lincolnshire, IL
HSBC – North America – Prospect Heights, IL
Intel Corporation – Santa Clara, CA
JPMorgan Chase – New York, NY
Kellogg Company – Battle Creek, MI
Kraft Foods Inc. – Northfield, IL
Macy’s, Inc. – New York, NY
McKinsey & Company – New York, NY
Merck & Co., Inc. – Whitehouse Station, NJ
MetLife, Inc. – New York, NY
New York Life Insurance Company – New York, NY
Northern Trust Corporation – Chicago, IL
PepsiCo – Purchase, NY
Pfizer Inc – New York, NY
Principal Financial Group – Des Moines, IA
Prudential Financial – Newark, NJ
State Farm – Bloomington, IL
Texas Instruments – Dallas, TX
The McGraw-Hill Companies – New York, NY
The New York Times Company – New York, N.Y.
The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. – Pittsburgh, PA
The Procter & Gamble Company – Cincinnati, OH
Verizon Communications Inc – New York, NY
Walmart – Bentonville, AR
Xerox – Stamford, CT

More info: National Associaton of Female Executives (NAFE), www.nafe.com