I'm a not-so-secret magazine junkie.  Here at The Center for Women's Leadership we subscribe to dozens of  periodicals that help us keep in touch with what's happening with women in a variety of leadership roles. I love the quick-read summaries of complex issues that get me curious, the sometimes  exemplary reporting, the often irreverent prose and the many windows to new ideas, new companies, new faces of leadership. What I don't  like is how infrequently those faces of leadership are female.  Women are still too often  invisible as major players in the stories, as writers of  the stories, or even as serious, grownup stakeholders or customers in the advertising.  So just in case editors of  business magazines are reading this, a few words to the wise:

Women actually purchase over 82% of all products and services in this country and have a voice in about 85% of all buying decisions. Translation?  Women decide how money gets spent—lots of money.   Money to buy the products created and sold by the companies featured in your magazine's stories or the goods and services advertised.  Scarier still, we  have a voice in whether or not to invest in those companies. And, not to get petty about it, we have a say about spending money to buy your magazine.  Or not.  Think about it.

It's true. Women  still occupy only about 4% of the very, very top senior management roles in major corporations.  But the vast majority of your articles are not about “major corporations” or about the “top guns”.  Your articles are about the industries and organizations where there's a buzz, a hum, even a plop. In other words, where there's a “good story”.  With more than 60 million women in the workforce and with women representing about 44% of “managerial” positions, you have a big pool of potentially “great stories”. Use it.

When there are few women in leadership roles in organizations it's not surprising that there is a blindness about this issue and a certain lack of sophistication. At the AnnenbergPublicPolicyCenter  they found that in the Fortune 500 companies that represent telecommunications, publishing, print and advertising, only 15% of the top executives are women and only 12% of the board members are female.  Write that story. We'll read it.  

To all of you who read business magazines, pay attention.  Notice who does and who doesn't feature women making a difference in business. Pay attention to who is quoted as an expert, an industry leader. Let us know who's doing a great job—even an okay job.  We already know who isn't.