The public relations industry is fortunate to have women as a large percentage of the work force, many of whom are in leadership or ownership positions at their firms. Other industries, specifically financial services, fare poorly in retaining senior women who become top executives. The World Economic Forum has just released a disturbing study of women in business across 134 countries that should provoke companies to concentrate on overcoming the patriarchal/masculine corporate culture and providing equal opportunities and pay. Here are some of the key findings:

1) Though women now represent over half of the work force in the US and nearly half in other Western countries, only 23% of Indian corporate employees and 24% of Japanese are women.

2) The women “tend to be concentrated in entry or middle level positions; the more senior the position, the lower the percentage of women. The highest percentage of female CEOs is in the Nordic countries. The US data shows 52% of total employees are women, 40% are entry level, 26% are mid level and 14% are board level in this sample.

3) Only one third of respondent companies have a specified target or other affirmative policy on employment of women. The US and UK based companies have universally applied such targets, while none of the Brazilian or Mexican firms have done so.

4) Salary disparity between men and women starts early in the career. According to a recent study of Harvard MBA students, its female graduates get lower pay, start at a lower level and have less career satisfaction from inception of professional life. Seventy two percent of respondent companies do not track salary differences between men and women.

5) The biggest barriers to women in management are masculine cultures and lack of role models, followed closely by the lack of opportunity for critical work experience and responsibility. Most companies do not track access to stretch assignments for women.

6) What seems to be working well is flexible working arrangements, parental leave and re-entry opportunities. These are no longer factors blocking female advancement.

Saadia Zahidi, who managed the study for WEF, concluded her remarks on Monday by saying, “Women don’t want to opt out. They want to advance. Business has to do better. We can do so only if companies begin to benchmark against best practices.” It seems that business has been content to do the “easy stuff,” but not to confront the macho culture or precedents favoring men. As the father of three young women whom I am counting on to carry the family business into Generation III and the husband of a professional woman who opted out after 17 successful years in banking, I can commit to our firm providing the very best opportunities and being judged on our performance relative to peers.