As early as this week, a banking committee panel could forward Janet Yellen's name for full Senate consideration as the nation's next chief of the Federal Reserve, which would make her, arguably, America's most powerful woman.
Which gets us to thinking about the question of women and leadership in the home building community. While not an oxymoron, it's the case that most home building organizations are led, overwhelmingly, by male executives.
Talk, for some years now, has focused on a growing awareness that women lead a household buying decisions in three-out-of four cases, and control $2 of every $3 spent.
Talk has also focused on a growing gap between females and males in educational attainment, with more women graduating from college, and more going on to and completing graduate studies.
Talk has also focused on the changes in the proficiencies required for home building organizations to succeed, with more focus on technology, marketing, finance, logistics, and customer care than ever.
Still, here are some sobering facts.
In 2012, women held 14.3% of executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies and 8.1 % of Executive Officer top earner positions, according to Fortune/Catalyst "Quick Take: Women in U.S. Management and Labor Force." In both 2011 and 2012, one-fifth of companies had 25% or more women executive officers.
Here's a look:
Among America's publicly-traded home builders, not so much.
Among 19 public home building companies, 79 named executive officers got mention in Securities and Exchange Commission proxy statements and S1s, showing an average compensation package totaled $2.54 million in 2012.
One woman, Taylor Morrison Homes president and CEO Sheryl Palmer, had the top position of the 19 companies, so that's just over 5%. Also, only 5% of the 19 enterprises' named executive officers were women, and women executive compensation packages averaged, $1.44 million, just 56% of the average exec comp.
Here's an analysis of the compensation for publicly-traded home building companies' female named executive officers.
What's more, if you'll stay tuned for updates to this post, we'll be adding a listing of a creditable list of the 25-to-30 most powerful women in home building. The plan is to open-source our reporting on this compilation, in hopes that you will nominate candidates to the list during the process.
Let's get this party started, shall we? Thanks goes to a couple of people who've helped a great deal in assembling what should make for a great glimpse into who and what's making some companies work particularly well in this early-going recovery period. One is Stephanie Pearson, a partner at Terra Search Partners, and the other is Veronica Ramirez, ceo/president at Joseph Chris Partners and companies, both of whom work on executive search assignments for home building's heavy hitters.
For the moment, we'll stick to an alphabetical rendering, and as we figure out measures and metrics, we'll come up with some power rankings.
Mira Ball, cfo, Ball Homes
Patty Bedient, exec vp/cfo, Weyerhaeuser Co.
Cory Boydston, cfo, Ashton Woods
Ginger Bryant, coo, Sares-Regis Group
Lori Carton, Building Company president, Arthur Rutenberg Homes
Leisel Cooper, senior vp, Richmond American
Stacey Dwyer, executive VP/treasurer, D.R. Horton
Colleen Edwards, CEO of EMC Creative
Sandra Ennis, ceo, Ennis Builders
Amy Glad, senior VP, Government Affairs, Pardee Homes
Andrea Goudge, vp/controller, Maracay Homes
Julie Hare, cfo, Antares Homes
Trece Herder, president, Wisteria Land Group
Heather Humphrey, cfo, David Weekley Homes
Rhonda Huston, cfo, Lakewood Homes
Kathi James, cmo, Beazer Homes
Elaine Jarosz, cfo, Armstrong Homes
Diane Jarvis, cfo, Legend Homes
Lisa Kinell, Building Co. president, Arthur Rutenberg Homes
Tawn Kelley, president TMHF and Mortgage Funding Direct Ventures, Taylor Morrison Homes
Kim Mackmin, cfo, Brookfield Homes D.C.
Joan Marcus-Colvin, senior VP, sales, marketing & design, The New Home Company
Wendy Marlette, cmo, Standard Pacific
Joyce Mason, VP Marketing, Pardee Homes
Maria Menendez, cfo, GL Homes
Vicki Mullens, executive VP/cfo, Newland Real Estate Group
Sheryl Palmer, president/ceo, Taylor Morrison Homes
Diane O’Connell, vp finance, Winchester Homes
Cheryl O’Connor, executive director HomeAid
Nancy Reynolds, cfo, Neal Communities
Kathy Smith, cfo, Bill Clark Homes
JaRee Stambeck, cfo, Ideal Homes
Kira Sterling, cmo, Toll Brothers
Karen Stewart, cfo, ForeverHome
Kimberly Turner, executive director Investment Bank Real Estate Credit Risk Management, JP Morgan
Deborah Wahl, senior VP/cmo, PulteGroup
Margaret Whelan, cfo, Tricon Capital GP Inc.
Janet Yellen, vice chair and chair on deck, Federal Reserve
Ivy Zelman, ceo/principal, Zelman Partners
Please feel free to comment below, adding to this list, people you feel deserve mention among home building's power rankings for women executives. The outcome will be a December posting of home building's top 10 most powerful female executives for 2013.