Woman to Run House That Barbie Built

Mattel on Thursday picked a woman to run the house that Barbie built, making Jill E. Barad chief executive of the $3.6-billion toy manufacturer, arguably the most powerful businesswoman in the nation.

When the 45-year-old Barad takes over Jan. 1 from 64-year-old John W. Amerman, she will top the very short list of women who head Fortune 1000 companies. That sorority numbers only four.

Barad’s rise has been rocket-like in an industry that is anything but child’s play, accomplished partly with the help of the 37-year-old plastic teenager with the impossible measurements. In fact, it is tough to ignore the irony in buxom Barbie’s serving as a launch pad for a woman’s vault to the top of the list of most powerful female executives.

Barad’s appointment, though expected among toy industry insiders, stands out for what it indicates about the world of business: Although women, who make up 47% of the work force, can be found prospering in corporate America, they remain few and far between in the executive suites.

In 1995, the federal Glass Ceiling Commission reported that women accounted for just 3% to 5% of senior managers in major corporations.

“This [Barad’s promotion] is news because most people don’t believe that women can do the CEO job, and they’re wrong,” said Sheila W. Wellington, president of Catalyst, a New York organization that strives to improve the lot of women in the workplace.

In 1978, Wellington noted, there were two female CEOs in the Fortune 1000. Today there are four.

In addition to Barad, whose El Segundo-based company ranks 342 on the list, they are Marion O. Sandler, co-founder with her husband, Herbert M., of Golden West Financial Corp., an Oakland savings and loan company; Linda Wachner of Warnaco, a New York clothing maker; and Loida Lewis, who took the reins of the food conglomerate TLC Beatrice International Holdings soon after the death of her husband, Reginald Lewis, the company’s founder.

Working Woman magazine this year listed Martha Ingram, chairman and principal shareholder of $11-billion Ingram Industries, as the nation’s top businesswoman. (The privately held company was not eligible for the Fortune 1000 list.) Ingram was public relations director of the Nashville-based conglomerate but took over after the death of her husband, industrialist E. Bronson Ingram.

When Catalyst surveyed 1,251 high-ranking female managers recently, participants attributed their career success primarily to three factors: consistently exceeding expectations, developing a style with which male managers are comfortable and seeking out difficult assignments.

What emerged from the study, Wellington said, is a strong message that “gender is a powerful determinant of career experience” and that to succeed women must work harder than men and consistently exceed expectations. These women, Wellington noted, “are not the sour-grapes set. These are the trailblazers.”

The female executives cited three factors holding women back: males’ stereotyping and preconceptions of women, the exclusion of women from informal communication networks, and a lack of significant general management or line experience.

Catalyst also surveyed CEOs (almost exclusively male), who attributed the paucity of women at the top to a lack of line experience and the fact that “women have not been in the pipeline long enough.”

Bunk, said Jean Lipman-Blumen, a management professor at Claremont Graduate School and author of a new book about leadership called “The Connective Edge.”

“I think it’s astonishing . . . and utterly deplorable,” she said of the thin ranks of women at the top, despite their vast numbers in the work force. “I think it speaks poorly for the political will of corporations and the government.”

Warren Bennis, a USC management professor who specializes in leadership issues, agreed that the movement of women into the upper echelons has been “glacial.” But he said the situation is bound to change dramatically in the next few years because “there are a lot of terrific women in the pipeline.”

At Mattel, Barad is not a one-and-only. Some 35% of top executives there are women, said Amerman, who will keep his job as chairman of the board.

“We believe in the power of the female,” said Amerman, who quadrupled Mattel’s sales volume and boosted earnings more than tenfold since he became chief executive in 1987. “I think too many companies don’t have that philosophy.”

Barad joined Mattel 15 years ago after brief stints in the cosmetics and entertainment industries, where she met her husband, Thomas, an independent film producer. They have two teenage sons.

Barad was named marketing director for the Barbie doll in 1982 and proceeded to update the image of the eternal teen that was created by Ruth Handler, Mattel’s co-founder.

Amerman described Barad as a “quick learner” who has been able to meet every marketing and manufacturing challenge he has thrown at her.

Sales of Barbie zoomed under Barad’s tutelage to where now more than one-third of company sales come from Barbie products. She will also oversee Mattel’s other core brands, Fisher-Price, Disney and Hot Wheels.

Barad, who became president and chief operating officer of Mattel Inc. in 1992, said she is encouraged by the progress that women have made in business. She points to the companies that have sought her out to serve as a director--Microsoft and BankAmerica Corp.

“It won’t be long” until more women hit the top ranks, said Barad. “There are a lot of women a level below.”

“I’m in an environment that rewards good performance,” she said. “If you’re doing a good job and you’re in an environment that’s looking for good people, the opportunities will be there for us.”

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Corporate America’s Top Women

Women remain rare at the top at major corporations. A sampling of some of the best known:

* Jill E. Barad, CEO, Mattel Inc., El Segundo

* Marian Ilitch, co-founder, Little Caesar Enterprises, Detroit

* Martha Ingram, chairwoman, Ingram Industries, Nashville, Tenn.

* Loida Lewis, chairwoman and CEO, TLC Beatrice, New York

* Liz Minyard, co-CEO, Minyard Food Stores, Coppell, Tex.

* Joyce Raley Teel, co-chairman, Raley’s, Sacramento

* Lynda Resnick, co-owner, Roll International, Los Angeles

* Marion Sandler, CEO, Golden West Financial Corp., Oakland

* Linda Wachner, chairwoman and CEO, Warnaco, N.Y.

* Gretchen Minyard Williams, co-CEO, Minyard Food Stores, Coppell, Tex.