Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business–24 of them are Female

I really like Fast Company’s coverage–they manage to produce a lot of fresh, interesting material that isn’t just about fuddy duddy notions of business, but the intersections of sustainability, design, creativity, leadership, innovation etc. (Full disclosure: I’m one of those nerds who likes futurist talk about where the world is headed culturally, technologically, sociologically etc.).
That’s why I was purdy disappointed to find that only 24 of the top 100 of their “Most Creative People in Business” list were women. Really Fast Company? Women are launching businesses at twice the rate of men. Super innovative microlending businesses are taking the world by storm, largely led by the efforts of women. Between 1997 and 2006, the number of majority women-owned businesses increased 42%.
I’m not going to trot out gender stereotypes about women being more creative than men, but God knows we’re as creative as men. We may be historically less likely to get involved in business, but all that’s changing in a huge way, and I would guess, the women who are blazing trails in business are largely doing it in creative ways (out of both necessity and ingenuity). I don’t claim to be a business expert, but this just seems short-sighted on the part of the Fast Company editorial team, who touts themselves as quintessentially big-picture and future-thinking.
The seven women in the top 25, FYI, are: Melinda Gates, Michelle Ganeless, Stella McCartney, Susan Athey, Trish Adams, Dawn Danby, Jil Sander.
Feel free to put your nominations in comments.