Glass Ceiling Prevails in Community Banking.

• Position: Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Women's advancement into top management at the community banking level continues to be an uphill battle. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Financial Women International Foundation, they aren't much better off in smaller, community banking institutions than they are in large, commercial banks. Of the top 100 community banks in the U.S. polled, none had a female CEO, three had a female chief financial officer, and just 16% of the executive management was female. For purposes of the study, community banks were defined as independent, locally owned and operated institutions whose assets ranged from less than $10,000,000 to several billion dollars, and the top 100 were ranked based on asset size. Data was collected from 1999 annual reports and interviews.

While the numbers may be higher than they were 20 years ago, it is difficult to...