MetLife ranked among top firms for executive women

NEW YORK – For the third year in a row, MetLife Inc. was ranked by the National Association for Female Executives among its annual 30 Top Companies for Executive Women. Several other companies with local operations also made the sixth annual list.
Met Life, whose Home & Auto division employs more than 2,000 people at its headquarters in Warwick, was honored for its continuing focus on promoting and retaining women in senior positions. More than half the insurer’s work force is female, as is nearly 40 percent of its senior management.
“Earning this recognition for three consecutive years is a great recognition of MetLife’s focus on the advancement of women within the company,” said Debra J. Capolarello, senior vice president of human resources. “We are particularly proud of our work-life programs that create a culture in which associates can lead fulfilling lives at work, at home and in their communities.”
Accepting the honor at a gala luncheon next Thursday will be Mira Graetz-Ball, MetLife’s managing director of international investments.
Locally active businesses in the 2008 Top 10 include Allstate Insurance Co., which recently launched the SAFE HANDS Network for Empowering Women to aid abuse victims in the community; and Prudential Financial, where half the leaders of major divisions are women, as are 37 percent of direct reports to the CEO.
Other 2008 NAFE Top Companies with local operations
include Hartford-based insurer Aetna Inc.; Cincinnati-based retailer Macy’s Inc.; Delray Beach, Fla.-based Office Depot; Sallie Mae, the Reston, Va.-based student loan consolidator; Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.; and Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Filling out the 2008 list are Top 10 members American Express, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Colgate-Palmolive; IBM; Liz Claiborne, Boston Globe owner The New York Times Co., where Janet L. Robinson is CEO, Principal Financial and Procter & Gamble, and remaining Top Companies Campbell Soup Co., General Mills, HSBC – North America, Kraft Foods Inc., outdoor activity supplier Patagonia Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and Xerox Corp.
The magazine also lists five top nonprofits, none of them local: Baptist Health South Florida, Bon Secours Richmond Health Service of Virginia, Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Midmichigan Health and the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System.
The full report is available in the print and online editions of NAFE Magazine’s Top Companies for Executive Women.
To qualify for consideration, a company must have two or more female board members. Judges then rank companies based on factors including the percentage of women on its board, in its succession plan, among direct reports to the CEO, among corporate executives, running major divisions and earning top compensation. They also consider the number of women with profit-and-loss responsibility and evaluate each company’s training and professional development efforts.
This year, NAFE “must report a disturbing lack of progress,” perhaps attributable to “the misconception that the glass ceiling is gone,” Betty Spence writes in her “Celebrating the Class of 2008.” She quotes Ilene Lang, president of Catalyst, as saying “Companies are growing complacent. But just seeing one woman at the top doesn’t mean meritocracy. We should be seeing more women in senior leadership position – close to half – given how many women have moved into middle management.”
The National Association for Female Executives, founded in 1972, is a national networking and advocacy group committed to the advancement of women in the workplace. It is a property of Working Mother Media Inc., the publisher of Working Mother and NAFE Magazine, which also owns the Public Affairs Group Inc. For more information, including the full list of 2008 NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women, visit www.nafe.com.

MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) is a provider of insurance and financial services in the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. To learn more, visit www.metlife.com.

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