财富500强女CEO半数出身理工科

    梅耶尔以优异成绩毕业于斯坦福大学（Stanford），获得了符号系统学理科学士学位和计算机科学硕士学位。之后加入谷歌（Google），成为谷歌的首位女性工程师。在37岁时加入雅虎，成为《财富》500强（Fortune 500）历史上最年轻的CEO。（这一纪录今年刚被Facebook的马克•扎克伯格打破。）

    很明显，梅耶尔的传统科技专业光环，帮助她攀上了美国商界的最高层。获得技术方面学位的女性通常并不多见，可令人意外的是，领导《财富》500强公司的女同胞们，也都曾获得过科学或数学，以及其他技术领域的学位。在20位《财富》500强公司女性CEO中，超过一半获得过所谓的STEM（科学、技术、工程与数学）学位。

    因此，IBM首席执行官罗睿兰以优异成绩获得西北大学（Northwestern）计算机科学与电气工程学学位，或者施乐公司（Xerox）CEO乌苏拉•伯恩斯和杜邦公司（DuPont）首席执行官柯爱伦在大学学过机械工程学，也就不足为奇了。伯恩斯继续获得了哥伦比亚大学的机械工程学硕士学位，并从施乐公司的暑假实习生成为领导者。

    但谁会想到，这些女性CEO们都有STEM教育背景呢？

    百事可乐公司（PepsiCo）CEO卢英德在印度马德拉斯基督教学院（Madras Christian College）学习过化学、物理和数学，后来获得了印度管理学院（Indian Institute of Management）的研究生学位。

    雅芳公司（Avon）的谢莉•麦考伊拥有达特茅茨马萨诸塞大学（University of Massachusetts）纺织化学专业理科学士学位，以及普林斯顿大学（Princeton）化学工程学专业硕士学位和罗格斯大学（Rutgers）MBA学位。

    艾琳•罗森菲尔德领导着从卡夫食品（Kraft Foods）分拆出来的巧克力生产商Mondelez，拥有市场营销与统计学博士学位，以及MBA学位和康奈尔大学（Cornell）的心理学学士学位。

    食品原料加工公司Ingredion的CEO伊琳•戈登有自己的一套理论。她认为，要想在商场上取得成功，女性比男性更需要接受分析教育。戈登毕业于麻省理工学院（MIT），并被接纳为学生联谊社（Phi Beta Kappa，美国大学里的一种荣誉组织，只有优秀的学生才能参加──译注）成员，拥有数学专业理科学士学位和MBA学位，最开始的时候，戈登从事的职业是数学老师，后来加入波士顿咨询集团（Boston Consulting Group），在那里，她发现不具备分析能力的女性“在职业发展早期就会遇到阻碍。”

    戈登表示：和男性相比，“女性缺乏信心”或影响力，来运用手腕提出自己的观点。她所领导的食品原料加工公司Ingredion目前价值65亿美元，在公司13名高管中，有五位女性，其中包括首席财务官。作为一名号称高处不胜寒（至少从性别标准来看）的女老板，戈登表示：“拥有分析学位，可以让女性与男性旗鼓相当，甚至超越男性。”（财富中文网）

    翻译：刘进龙/汪浩

    As Marissa Mayer stood with David Karp to announce Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr on Monday, you couldn't help but notice the vast educational divide between the two principals. Karp dropped out of Bronx High School of Science and went on to create a blogging platform worth $1.1 billion. Mayer graduated with honors from Stanford, earning a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and a Master's in Computer Science--then went to Google (GOOG) as its first female engineer and on to Yahoo (YHOO) to become, at 37,the youngest CEO in the Fortune 500. (Until Facebook (FB) Mark Zuckerberg nabbed that distinction.)

    Mayer's traditional tech cred clearly helped propel her to corporate America's highest level. What's surprising, given the well-known dearth of women earning tech degrees, is that Mayer's female compatriots who lead Fortune 500 companies also tend to have earned diplomas in science or math or some other technical area. More than half of the 20 female Fortune 500 CEOs graduated with so-called STEM degrees--in science, tech, engineering or mathematics.

    Granted, it's no surprise that IBM (IBM) chief Ginni Rometty graduated with high honors in computer science and electrical engineering from Northwestern. Or that Xerox (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns and DuPont (DD) chief

    Ellen Kullman studied mechanical engineering in college. Burns, who went on to get a Master's in mechanical engineering at Columbia, rose from summer intern at Xerox to lead the company.

    But who would have expected these women chiefs to have STEM backgrounds?...

    PepsiCo's (PEP) Indra Nooyi studied chemistry, physics, and math at Madras Christian College in India before getting her graduate degree at Indian Institute of Management.

    Avon's (AVP) Sheri McCoy has a B.S. in textile chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, plus a Master's in chemical engineering from Princeton and an MBA from Rutgers.

    Irene Rosenfeld, who leads Mondelez (MDLZ)--split off from Kraft Foods--has a Ph.D. in Marketing and Statistics, plus an MBA and B.A. in Psychology, from Cornell.

    Ingredion (INGR) CEO Ilene Gordon has a theory. She believes that women, more than men, need an analytical education to succeed in business. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of MIT, with a B.S. in mathematics and an MBA, Gordon began her career as a math teacher and moved to Boston Consulting Group, where she noticed that women without analytical chops "often get snowed early in their careers."

    "Women don't have the confidence" or the clout, Gordon says, to put forth ideas with the finesse that men tend to have. She has five women, including her CFO, on her 13-member executive team at Ingredion, a $6.5 billion ingredient company. Speaking as a boss who is lonely at the top, at least by gender standards, Gordon adds, "An analytical degree puts you on par or ahead of the men."