Female Fortune 500 CEOs At Record High

With Mylan Pharmaceuticals' announcement today that Heather Bresch -- company president and daughter of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin -- would succeed outgoing CEO Robert Coury, the number of female CEOs on the Forbes Fortune 500 list reached 18, a new record.

At 42, Bresch is the youngest female CEO on the list. Though joining the ranks of the Fortune 500 CEO club puts her in the company of some of the most prolific and successful Post50 women in the world.

At #11, Hewlitt-Packard CEO and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman leads the charge as the first woman named on a list that also includes such titans as Andrea Jung, Indra Nooyi and Patricia Woertz.

Here are the 16 Post50 women named by Forbes in its annual top Fortune 500 CEOs list:

Comments

[Jessica Engholm]

04:51 PM on 12/03/2011

Girl power?

[CarmanK]

03:10 PM on 11/01/2011

All these women in positions of power and the greatest assault on women's equality are going on without a peep. These women are standing by while the equality of women across this country are being threatened. Not one of them has spoken out in favor of protecting PLANNED PARENTHOOD FROM THE demonic attacks on the RIGHT. Not one of them is willing to stand up and warn about the dangers of THE personhood amendments in the states. NOT ONE OF THEM HAS DONE a thing to promote equal rights for women in the work place. Fortune 500 women, what a joke. They are just a bunch of leeches who have climbed the ladder of corporate america and left all other women in the wind. They aren't very good at their jobs anyway. They are too willing to sell out their womanhood, in order to be one of the boys. WOMEN are supposed to be the civilizing voice in a society, in the US these days, the women seem to out do themselves trying to be worse than men. Jan Brewer is AZ is a murderer. Haley in SC has no problem taking away women's health care choices or their rights to vote. These women have given nothing back.

[bldr1bob]

10:01 AM on 10/27/2011

How can this be? I thought the 1% club was just a bunch of old white guys.............

[nuzzybear]

09:23 AM on 10/27/2011

HP, I've always been hard on you for your cut-and-paste style of journalism and overly sensationalistic headlines, but here I have to give you kudos:

Debra Reed is going to be CEO from 2004 - 2066??? THAT'S THE SCOOP OF THE CENTURY!!! So, if she's 52 now and she's got 55 years to go, that means that she'll move to an advisory position on the board when she's 107. She'll probably want to cut back her work hours then and spend more time with her great great great grandchildren.

[catlover80]

09:09 AM on 10/27/2011

wait, wait....capitalism is evil right?? how dare these women become successful and mentors to girls everywhere! shame on them!

[Tom Joad]

08:51 AM on 10/27/2011

Patrcia Woertz "...hosts an annual company town hall, where she answers questions from employees around the world..."

...Can we have a raise? "No"
...Can we unionize? "No"
...Can we count on you to preserve our pensions? "No"
...Can we have health insurance? "No"

[Moti]

08:23 AM on 10/27/2011

A-w-k-w-a-r-d. 1%'ers with a pair of x chromosomes.

[robert horwitz]

08:13 AM on 10/27/2011

Myself I only have a passing knowledge of some of these woman. Meg Whitman I have heard interviewed many times and I have always really liked her. I believe she is plenty smart and is usually on top of things. Though I believe she would have made a terrible Governor of California. In all fairness to Meg It's impossible for anyone to be a good Governor of California.

[jeanrenoir]

07:51 AM on 10/27/2011

The American Women's Movement is incomparably the most successful social revolution in human history. Girls now CRUSH boys at all levels of school--from pre-K to Wharton. It's only a matter of time before women dominate the board rooms, as well as the halls of government. We need affirmative action for pitiful men now. They just can't cut it anymore, now that the well-paid work is all brains and no brawn.

[grapost]

07:45 AM on 10/27/2011

No wonder there has been an economic downturn and there are no jobs! That's what happens when your get a woman to do a Man's job!

[mosttruthful]

07:29 AM on 10/27/2011

Those evil CEO's have now started to include women. What a world, what a world.

[rolor]

07:25 AM on 10/27/2011

18 out 500 is still a long way to go to achieve equality. I suspect people like Whitman and Fiorina help the cause much beyond demonstrating that incompetence is a gender neutral quality.

[GHO]

06:46 AM on 10/27/2011

Yeah, but those 18 are just part of the evil rich 1% and are to be reviled, right?

[pipetoe]

06:45 AM on 10/27/2011

Oh but lets take it all away from them and give it to people who can't think or work.

[Sybil Disobedience]

07:52 AM on 10/27/2011

did you always know you wanted to commit you life to enabling and being the cheer leader for criminal and corrupt sociopaths...who don't play by the rules but demand you do...(their rules)

[v eyepete]

06:43 AM on 10/27/2011

Just goes to show you, the fairer sex can step on faces to get ahead also.

[Zora Barbaric]

06:51 AM on 10/27/2011

yeah, we're up to 3% WATCH OUT BOYS.

and i'm sure none of them got there by being smart, hard-working, or capable.