I was recently forwarded an article printed in Fortunequestioning why women don't seem to create the kinds of companies that wind up on its listing of the nation's biggest companies.  

The article raises questions about whether women just don't have big aspirations for building and leading companies. Oh, please!  Can't we get past all this?  It's 2006 and women are building and leading some pretty amazing companies.  In fact, they have been for quite some time now.  Why can't we get some attention on that? 

In a study we did on the business media's coverage of women entrepreneurs between 2000 and 2004, one of the most significant findings was that the business media doesn't devote much coverage to entrepreneurial ventures founded by women; and, when it does, it focuses on what I've come to call the “Cinderella stories,” those that emphasize the hard-luck situations that prompted women to start their own firms (or, the implication is, why else would they do it?).  But, it doesn't take much work to discover that women are founding firms in all kinds of industries, and building big businesses.  We've simply got to start expecting to find them and look!  And we've got to raise our expectations so that when we look, we look beyond the $1 million dollar start-ups (don't get me wrong, they're important too!) to the many thriving multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies (and business units) either founded or currently led by women.

Did you know that leading companies like Mattel (Ruth Handler), Cisco (Sandra Lerner), Black Entertainment Television (Sheila Johnson), and Golden West Financial (Marion Sandler) were co-founded by women?  Why don't they get more credit?  How about the multi-billion dollar companies with women CEOs like Cumberland Farms (Lily Bentas) or Banta Corporation (Stephanie Streeter) or the market leading companies led by women like Lee Enterprises (Mary Junck) or Millenium Pharmaceuticals (Deborah Dunsire)?  Why don't we hear more about them?  How about the women executives at the helm of significant business units at companies like Fidelity Investments (Ellyn McColgan), Hewlett Packard (Ann Livermore) and National Grid (Cheryl LaFleur)? 

From media coverage to industry conferences to board rooms and classrooms, there is an abundance of male aspirational role models.  Their presence is often simply a matter of habit.  A conference organizer (or a search executive or a teacher) looks to the standard network and listings as a source for connections or invitations.  With just a little thought, those invitations could more fully represent the accomplishments of women for everyone's benefit and learning.