NO LONGER RARE.

• Author: Holliday, Karen Kahler

More and more women have been ascending to the top ranks of financial departments, many as CFOs. A look at some of the reasons why that's happening, and some of the people who are making it happen.

The Old Boys Club is getting a new look.

A generation ago, a woman chief financial officer was practically as rare as a four-leaf clover. Now, women are moving into CFO or senior treasury slots, at companies of all sizes, at an unprecedented rate. While female CFOs are still a very distinct minority, women finance professionals have ridden the same generational wave that has brought countless women to the ranks of medicine and law. Almost every week comes an announcement about a woman -- very often in her late 30s or early 40s -- taking a top job in finance, frequently as a CFO.

Like the rise of women in other professions, the emergence of women CFOs is testimony to better training, longer apprenticeships in meaningful jobs -- and perhaps a partial dismantling of old shibboleths about women's real commitment to a career. There's also been a recognition that women can excel in finance, and don't need to be shunted to the "softer" areas of corporate life, like public relations and marketing, that many companies traditionally reserved for women.

Statistics aren't easy to come by, but the membership ranks at FEI offer real evidence of change. Women now represent 10 percent of the total membership, up from just 1 percent in 1980 and 5 percent in 1990. Fourteen percent of new elections from last year were women, and there are twice as many female CFOs in FEI today as there were five years ago.

Unquestionably, the climb up the ladder has often been daunting, and many women have checked out of Corporate America permanently. Yet those who have persevered are frequently building high-level, visible careers in finance. As chief financial officers of major companies such as Merck, Lucent Technologies, Chase Manhattan Corp., ITT Industries, Agilent Technologies, priceline.com and TheStreet.com, women are proving their mettle in a highly competitive and demanding professional discipline.

"While there are certain cities and industry sectors that tend to be more progressive in their attitudes towards women, we are seeing greater advancement opportunities for female executives in the financial track," says John Challenger, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a human resources consultant. "We believe that women's increasing success in what has been a non-traditional area for them underscores the association of results with professional advancement."

Experts say that the financial track is opening up for a variety of reasons. While women attend top-tier business schools at a much lower rate than they do medical and law schools, according to Catalyst, a career research firm, more women are getting business degrees today than 20 years ago, giving them the needed credentials to move up the ladder. The raft of companies starting up during the past decade -- particularly dot.coms -- has also proven fruitful for women, sparking demand for financial experts who can navigate companies through fluctuating economic conditions. Additionally, Corporate America's religious emphasis on financial results enables female controllers and CFOs to be evaluated more fairly on objective measures of performance that carry weight with CEOs and board members.

But if the times are changing, corporate cultures are sometimes adapting more slowly. "Companies can be proactive by identifying high-potential women within their firms as MBA candidates," says Mary Mattis, a senior research fellow at Catalyst. "Too often the stereotypical mode of thinking is that a male employee is a better investment for an MBA because of the perception that he won't leave to start a family."

And while finance is increasingly a productive arena for corporate advancement, some argue that it isn't necessarily the fastest route to the CEO's office. "While CFOs garner a great deal of visibility and respect within their organizations and possess a great deal of responsibility, there's still the perception that you're reaching a top level of management in what is viewed as a staff position," says Mattis. "It is still more common to tap a CEO from the ranks of those who run specific lines of business."

What follows are the stories of five prominent female financial managers and their thoughts about what has helped shape their careers during a time of change.

Seeking Out Opportunities

One clear element in the rise of women CFOs is the fact that women are becoming savvier in charting their own career development, proactively seeking educational and professional opportunities that enhance their skill sets in an increasingly high-tech, 24-7 global economy. Consider Lisa Mogensen, chief financial officer and...