My weekends are made for reading. We subscribe to a number of print media publications. During the week my reading material stacks up and by Saturday, the pile is frequently several inches tall.

Today was no different. I sat down after my Saturday ritual - my wife makes fun of it, but I like it.

Walk the dogs early; go to the grocery store to buy the morning's breakfast goodies; cook; eat and then nestle down for a few hours of reading. Predictably, no less than fifteen minutes into the reading, I will find several outrageous articles. As I uncover them, I will read them out loud to Gillian. And together we will ponder how our world can be so crazy, and why we accept it so. Today was no exception.

The Dallas Business Journal published the annual list of highest paid Dallas-based executives of publicly traded companies. I scanned the list to see who I knew. Page one. The top 25 list. All men. I paused and shared my findings with Gillian. I asked her where the first woman would show up in the list.

Surely, we would find a woman soon. Oh, by the way, tops on the list - Bob Simpson, CEO of XTO Energy with $32M in compensation for the year. Not too shabby!

Page two. The next 25. No women. Gillian, can you believe not a single woman in the top 50. I asked Gillian to review the list. Clearly I must have missed a female name. Gillian reviewed the list. Nope. No women.

Page three. Well, what do you know! We found one. Number 53, Susan Byrne, "Chairman" and CEO of Westwood Holdings, a management investment firm. Ms. Byrne's compensation for the last year - $1.7 million.

Sadly, in the top 100 paid executives list, just three women. The first 52 in the list - all men, earning an aggregate $206 million for the year. Not one dollar earned by a woman. It's still a good old boys' network in corporate America. Don't let anyone fool you!

It's still a man's world! Shareholders - we need to hold corporations accountable. Why so few women?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive