The Companies for Women?

The National Association of Female Executives ranked Avon, Colgate-Palmolive Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal USA and Procter & Gamble among the top 50 companies for executive women for 2015.

NAFE notes that with CEO Sheri McCoy at the helm, Avon is a haven for motivated, ambitious women, who occupy 64% of all spots on its board of directors and 33% of those on the executive committee (among those who serve it there are the heads of communications, marketing and human resources). Despite its already impressive achievements, the company is now embarking on a comprehensive plan to become a true “employer of choice” for women, which will find it actively evaluating their work conditions in markets around the world, filling the pipeline with more female executives, enhancing benefits and emphasizing pay equity and flexible schedules.

According to NAFE, Colgate gives women a real chance to make a name for themselves, whether it’s by taking a major role in one of its nine employee resource networks, tapping $10,000 in annual tuition aid to obtain a graduate degree or enrolling in its executive education and leadership development programs. In 2014, 47% of the employees who received formal mentoring and career counseling here were female, as were 37% of all succession-planning candidates. Attractive perks include fully paid parental leave, free backup child care, on-site fitness centers, stock options and a 401(k) with match.

At Johnson & Johnson, the top 100 female leaders at this health care company band together in its Executive Forum (introduced in 2013), a high-level resource group through which members work to accelerate their careers, sponsor junior women, connect with the executive committee and open doors for recent recruits. It’s an offshoot of the employer’s 20-year-old Women’s Leadership Initiative, which has 50 chapters nationwide and maintains special segments dedicated to advancing female directors and managers in supply chain, finance, IT and procurement. The new Multicultural Leadership Development Program provides business education for men and women of color, raising their visibility with participating execs and boosting their retention.
&G in the top 10 among for-profit companies, NAFE noted that 30% of senior executives at P&G are women, which is up from 15% in 2000.

NAFE maintains that achieving gender parity in its upper ranks is serious business for L'Oréal USA, where many women spend their entire careers, and two (Carol Hamilton, president of luxury products, and Karen Fondu, President of L’Oréal Paris) head half of all segments worth $1 billion or more. Always striving to serve its female executives better, management also offers them mentoring, coaching and leadership programs, with multiple women’s think tanks charting new paths across the company. The L’Oréal for Women network hosts annual executive off-sites at which attendees explore issues pertaining to advancement, work life balance and more.

Procter & Gamble was recognized for management’s support during life-changing moments: from Mary Lynn Ferguson-McHugh, group president for Western Europe, who years ago was named to lead an international business just as her baby’s adoption came through, to Carolyn Tastad, global customer business development officer, who found out she was pregnant weeks after a big promotion and move. Leaders’ willingness to acknowledge (and work around) employees’ goals may be one reason that today 30% of senior executives here are female (up from 15% in 2000)