An advertisement for Fortune in New York City. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Fortune Magazine
Daily Pulse

Few women make Fortune’s ‘hottest’ list

Paddy Hirsch Oct 20, 2011
An advertisement for Fortune in New York City. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Fortune Magazine

“They’re the hottest young stars in business across the globe,” Fortune Magazine says, but only six of them are women.

Of Fortune’s 40 Under 40, the top 19 are male, making us question whether the glass ceiling in corporate America has really shattered. Or maybe it’s just been so well polished that we don’t think it’s there anymore.

The fact that women are so underrepresented in Fortune’s hot business stars list has weakened the Marketplace Daily Pulse today.

Fortune writes: “They’re in technology, yes, but also in movies, music, athletic wear, and even curry-flavored chocolate. And the scary thing is they’re just getting started.”

But the scary thing may be that only six women are on the list — and this being a ranking of young stars makes it even more depressing.

The Atlantic’s Rebecca Greenfield writes:

Born in 1971 at the very latest, these talents grew up post feminism. Theoretically the glass ceiling really shouldn’t be an issue. But, we all know that’s not how things turned out.

So which women made the list? There’s Google Vice President Marissa Mayer (No. 20), J.Crew’s Libby Wadle (No. 23), Mona Mourshed of McKinsey (No. 26), CNN’s Erin Burnett (No. 33), Facebook VP Carolyn Everson (No. 35), and Vosges Haut-Chocolat CEO Katrina Markoff (No. 40).

Fortune says its 40 under 40 are “innovators, disrupters, and job creators; in fact, it’s a pretty safe bet you’re going to be working for them someday — if you aren’t already!”

Which is fine, I guess. Unless you prefer working for a woman. For a list of Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2011, click here.

Meanwhile, here’s the full 40 Under 40 list:
1. Mark Zuckerberg — Founder and CEO, Facebook

2. Larry Page — Co-founder and CEO, Google

3. Greg Jensen — Co-CEO and co-CIO, Bridgewater Associates

4. Aditya Mittal — CFO, ArcelorMittal

5. John Arnold — Founder, Centaurus Energy

6. Brian Deese — Deputy director, National Economic Council

7. Daniel Ammann — CFO, General Motors

8. Jack Dorsey — Co-founder and executive chairman, Twitter; co-founder and CEO, Square

9. Jeff George — Global head of Sandoz, Novartis

10. Sid Sankaran — Chief risk officer, AIG Chief risk officer, AIG

11. Sergey Brin — Co-founder, Google

12. Kevin Plank — Founder and CEO, Under Armour

13. Ryan Seacrest — Radio/TV host; CEO, Ryan Seacrest Productions

14. Cesar Conde — President, Univision Networks

15. Michael Hasenstab — Portfolio manager, Franklin Templeton

16. Kevin Feige — President, Marvel Studios

17. David Rhodes — President, CBS News

18. Daniel Ek — Founder and CEO, Spotify

19. Barry Silbert — Founder and CEO, SecondMarket / Boaz Weinstein — Founder, Saba Capital

20. Marissa Mayer — VP, Google

21. Raj Shah — Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

22. Ryan Kavanaugh — CEO, Relativity Media

23. Libby Wadle — Executive vice president, retail and direct, J. Crew

24. Franz Koch — CEO, Puma

25. Bonin Bough — Senior global director of digital and social media, PepsiCo

26. Mona Mourshed — Partner, Middle East office, and global education lead, McKinsey

27. Andrew Mason — Founder and CEO, Groupon

28. Dennis Crowley — Co-founder and CEO, Foursquare / Rio Caraeff — President and CEO, Vevo

29. Drew Houston — Co-founder and CEO, Dropbox / Arash Ferdowsi — Co-founder and CTO, Dropbox

30. Salman Khan — Founder and executive director, Khan Academy

31. Tony Hsieh — CEO, Zappos.com / Charles Best — Founder, DonorsChoose.org

32. John Janick — Co-president, Elektra Records / Mike Caren — Co-president, Elektra Records

33. Erin Burnett — Host, CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront

34. Blake Mycoskie — Founder and chief shoe giver, Toms

35. Carolyn Everson — VP, global marketing solutions, Facebook

36. Dan Yates — CEO, co-founder, Opower / Alex Laskey –President, co-founder, Opower

37. Tor Myrhen — President and chief creative officer, Grey New York

38. Scott Harrison — Founder and CEO, Charity:water

39. Kevin Systrom — CEO, Instagram

40. Katrina Markoff — Founder and CEO, Vosges Haut-Chocolat

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