Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Modeling: Women’s Leadership
Abstract
The study applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS) modeling to the variables which have been identified in the research as barriers to women’s advancement at the highest levels of corporate leadership. The data show women exit high level leadership roles at greater rates than their male counterparts and fail to advance on par with male counterparts (Carter & Silva, 2010; Catalyst, 2011; U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). Labor statistics show women represent 57% of the overall workforce and approximately 46% of management, professional, and related occupations in the United States but only 13% of Fortune 500 executive officers, 7.5% of top earners, and 3.6% of CEOs. This study utilized GIS modeling to analyze corporate women’s outcomes by company, state and city related to work-life-balance and diversity initiatives, percentage of women executives, highest paid women’s salaries and the gender pay gap. The maps resulting provide visual representation of correlations between variables identified in the literature as women’s advancement barriers layered with women’s actual representation and advancement outcomes. Data was collected utilizing both Fortune and Forbes “best of the best” rankings which included 58 questions surveying 128,000 women and 70,000 minorities at 630 companies. Initial mapping showed highly clustered success data in terms of women’s workforce success with the lowest pay gaps and highest mean salaries clustered in few geographic areas (mainly northeast and southwest) with New York and California as top state outliers. GIS Mapping showed few cities nationally representing strong advancement opportunities for women. Pay and work-life-balance were not shown to be correlated.