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A record has been set for female leadership: More women are slated to take the reins of Fortune 500 companies than ever before.

Wednesday, pharmaceutical firm Mylan said Heather Bresch will succeed Robert Coury as CEO. Tuesday, IBM tapped Virginia "Ginni" Rometty to succeed Sam Palmisano, making her the first female CEO in the company's 100-year history. Both appointments are effective Jan. 1.

If no women step down before the end of 2011, there will be 18 women running Fortune 500 companies in 2012. Previously, there haven't been more than 16 female CEOs at Fortune 500 firms at the same time.

• STORY: IBM taps first woman CEO to succeed Palmisano
  STORY: Company directors see pay skyrocket
  STORY: Behind the bargains at T.J. Maxx with TJX CEO Carol Meyrowitz

Yet, while the upcoming ascensions are notable, the gender gap between men and women in the workplace remains vast, with females struggling to get the mentors they need and the pay to equal their male counterparts.

"The advancement of key women in business is stalled," says Cynthia Good, CEO of women's business newsletter Little PINK Book.

This year, there were 98 female CEOs of 3,049 publicly traded companies analyzed by research company GMI. That represents 3.2% of the total company CEOs and is just slightly above the 3.1% from last year and 2.9% from 2009.

Female CEOs represent just about 3% of Fortune 500 company heads.
n 2009, women held 15.2% of Fortune 500 board seats, according to women's issues research group Catalyst. In both 2009 and 2010, 12% of Fortune 500 companies had no women serving on their boards.

"We've really flat-lined," says Debbie Soon, Catalyst senior vice president of marketing and strategy. "For the last five years, there's been hardly any progress."

Read More http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/story/2011-10-26/women-ceos-fortune-500-companies/50933224/1

Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

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Note -

This is a list of women who currently hold CEO positions at companies that rank on the most recently published Fortune 1000 list. Women currently hold 3.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEO roles and 3.5 percent of Fortune 1000 roles. 

Fortune 1-500 (18 CEOs) 

• Meg Whitman, HP (#11)
• Virginia Rometty, IBM (#18)
• Patricia A. Woertz, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) (#39)
• Angela F. Braly, WellPoint, Inc. (#42)
• Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo, Inc. (#43)
• Irene B. Rosenfeld, Kraft Foods Inc. (#49)
• Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, Sunoco (#68)
• Ellen J. Kullman, DuPont (#84)
• Carol M. Meyrowitz, The TJX Companies, Inc. (#119)
• Ursula M. Burns, Xerox Corporation (#121)
• Laura Sen, BJ's Wholesale Club (#221)*
• Andrea Jung, Avon Products Inc. (#226)
• Deanna M. Mulligan, Guardian (#245)
• Debra L. Reed, Sempra Energy (#274)
• Denise M. Morrison, Campbell Soup (#312)
• Gracia C. Martore, Gannett (#415)
• Beth E. Mooney, KeyCorp (#417) 
• Heather Bresch, Mylan (#418)

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/271/women-ceos-of-the-fortune-1000

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