Get Your PAR On

Companies have until June 5 to get their surveys in for WICT’s annual PAR Initiative, which provides a snapshot of pay equity, advancement and resources for women in the industry. With just weeks remaining, outgoing WICT pres/CEO Benita Fitzgerald Mosley says that she’s hopeful the study with draw the same number of respondents as years past.

“Every year we see some ebb and flow,” she said. “Smaller companies are having a harder time in this economy [allocating the human resources to completing it]. A couple have told us they are taking a break this year.”

Mosley, who will leave WICT at the end of June to join USA Track & Field, ushered in the PAR Initiative ’03. She said it was one of the 1^st ideas during her 8-year tenure at the association for women in cable.

It will be interesting to see if cable bucks some of the trends reported last year. The number of women in sr exec positions (CEO, COO, CFO, etc) dropped to 22.8% last year from 27.7% in ’07, according to the survey, which included 21 programmers, 14 operators and 5 industry suppliers & nonprofits. Since the survey’s launch, the number of women in the industry has dropped to 36.4% from 38.7%, with an overall trend of declining numbers of women in all categories except middle managers. Cox ranked as the Best Operator for Women in Cable for the 6^th consecutive year in the ’08 survey. Discovery took top the programmer honor.

The ’09 PAR online survey and resource booklet can be found here.