It’s important to note that this list is meant to represent the top companies for females pursuing executive roles – and does not necessarily represent the top companies pursuing technical careers.

Earlier this year, I posed the question – was 2011 a good year for female leaders? Because I’m a data junkie, I always like to look at the numbers, so let’s take a look at the data in the NAFE 50 report, to see if it can help us answer that question:

53% of the employees across these companies are women. 33% of senior managers are women.

22% of the corporate executives in these companies are women (compared to 14% of Fortune 500 companies), but 37% of the profit and loss executives are women.

The boards are comprised of 23% female directors (compared to 16.1% at Fortune 500 companies).

10% of the NAFE 50 companies have a female CEO (compared to 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies). That is a drop from 14% in 2011.