Above glass ceiling the footing is fragile

One major accomplishment of Carly Fiorina went unnoticed in her ouster last week as one of the nation's most prominent chief executives: Her six-year tenure set a record of sorts.

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Fiorina lasted longer than other women who lost their jobs as Fortune 1000 chief executives in recent years. Remember Jill Barad at Mattel Inc.? She transformed the 1950s Barbie into a new millennium sensation, but Barad lasted only three years. Pamela Lieberman was forced out after two years at the helm of True Value Co., while S. Marce Fuller, who has held the top post at electricity company Mirant Corp. for five years, is resigning.

Although the tenure of male chief executives is shortening amid intense post-Enron scrutiny by corporate boards and shareholders, it isn't that short. The average chief executive of the world's largest publicly traded companies holds his job for 8.2 years, while women stay 4.8 years, according to a study by Booz Allen Hamilton. The consultant cautioned, however, that there are so few women chief executives that it is hard to draw conclusions.

''A CEO who is a woman is a classic example of a woman who is succeeding extremely well in a male-dominated field. She's not supposed to be up there," said Rosalind Barnett of Brandeis University's Women's Studies Research Center and coauthor of ''Same Difference: How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs."

Women run just 14 of the nation's 1,000 biggest publicly traded companies, according to Catalyst, a New York research firm that tracks women in business. Still that's more than any time in US history. The question becomes: Do they have staying power?

Odds appear to work against women. Like Fiorina, half of this elite group of female chief executives took the reins of a company in need of a turnaround, including Avon Products Inc., Rite-Aid Corp., Lucent Technologies, Mattel, and Xerox Corp.

Women ''have more difficulty getting a top job" and ''will take a job that has problems," said Marion Sandler, the 74-year-old co-chief executive of Golden West Financial Corp. ''It's great if you can come in and rescue the company, but your chances of success aren't nearly as great as if you take over a company that's not in trouble."

Carol Goldberg, former president of the Quincy-based Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. grocery chain, said talented women often are given the chance to run struggling companies because biases against women in the boardrooms fall by the wayside in those situations.

''When things are bad, and a reasonable talent is on the horizon, I think way down deep gender is not the issue," said Goldberg.

A British study found that women agree to head up troubled companies more so than their male counterparts. The study compared men and women appointed during 2004 as either chief executives or board members by the large companies that make up London's FTSE 100 stock index. In the five months prior to their appointments, these companies had, on average, experienced a declining stock price. No clear stock-price direction was discernible in the months preceding male appointments.

''There was a clear pattern for the women," said Michelle Ryan, the study's coauthor and a psychology professor at University of Exeter in Great Britain. Short tenures are ''the fallout of women being put in problematic circumstances."

Judy George, chief executive and founder of home furnishings retailer Domain, who sits on several boards, said women aren't taking on the assignments blindly. When Fiorina, for example, joined HP as chief executive in 1999, she knew she had to re-energize the old computer company or lose ground to nimble competitors. She engineered the 2002 acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. for $24 billion but it backfired.

Said George: ''She knew the game, and I loved that she took the risk. I love that she walked away with" $21 million.

Some who took risks have won big. Andrea Jung became Avon chief executive in November 1999 as the stock hit a $12 a share, down from nearly $28 earlier that year. Its business model based on door-to-door sales no longer worked.

Deborah Merrill-Sands, dean of the Simmons School of Management, said Jung invested in Web sales and retained loyalty among distributors by sharing some profits with them. ''She has done a remarkable turnaround," said Merrill-Sands. Avon's stock closed at $43.40 yesterday.

Until a decade ago, only three women were chief executives of big public companies: the late Katherine Graham of The Washington Post Co., whose husband had been publisher; Linda Wachner of Warnaco Group, whose 15-year tenure spanned from spectacular success to Bankruptcy Court; and Sandler, who founded Golden West with her husband in 1962.

After Barad's appointment at Mattel in 1997, 21 women chief executives followed. Included are Cumberland Farms' Lily Bentas, who has led the Boston convenience store firm since 1998, and Dorrit Bern of Charming Shoppes Inc. since 1995. And last week Sara Lee Corp. appointed Brenda Barnes as its next chief executive.

But the majority of today's female chief executives of public companies, including Meg Whitman of eBay Inc., were appointed two to three years ago, giving women little time to develop dynasties exemplified by Jack Welch, former chief executive of General Electric Co.

Women management specialists cite various reasons for a scarcity of female chief executives. While the numbers are growing, growth is slow. Women drop out of the pipeline to raise families or start businesses. Those among the ranks of corporate America don't always advance as rapidly as men.

Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.