silicon valley

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At the 400 largest companies headquartered in California, women filled less than 10 percent of top executive jobs at the close of fiscal year 2012, and Silicon Valley companies had fewest women in top jobs according to a study released by the University of California, Davis.

As in previous years, Silicon Valley companies were among the least inclusive of executive women: Fewer than 7 percent of their highest-paid executives were women, the study found. Silicon Valley companies represented nearly half of the $3 trillion in shareholder value the 400 companies comprised. Consumer products companies had the most female executives.

“[T]he lack of women in these California public companies is anything but forward-thinking. There are many talented, highly qualified women for these top leadership positions,” said Steven C. Currall, dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

At the close of the fiscal year, there were no women among the highest-paid executives at Apple, Google, Intel, Cisco, eBay or Yahoo. Yahoo has since appointed Marissa Mayer as CEO with a base salary of $1 million. (According to AllThingsD, Mayer’s total compensation comes to roughly $60 million.)

Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg was its highest paid executive in 2011, earning more than $30 million.