Recent news and insights on women in leadership from convenience stores and beyond.
Top Employers
Four convenience-store chains and several industry suppliers were named among Forbes magazine’s 2023 America’s Best Employers for Women.
Convenience retailers earning spots on this year’s list of 400 companies include:
- Kwik Trip/Kwik Star, La Crosse, Wisconsin (No. 165)
- Sheetz, Altoona, Pennsylvania (No. 288)
- Wawa, Wawa, Pennsylvania (No. 363)
- QuikTrip, Tulsa, Oklahoma (No. 392)
Created in partnership with market research firm Statista, Forbes’ list derives primarily from surveys of more than 60,000 workers at companies with at least 1,000 employees. About 40,000 women were asked to rate their company in areas such as working environment, salary and employee diversity, and then whether they would recommend their company to a friend or family member; their answers were also compared to those of 20,000 men to assess any significant differences in workplace perception.
Women were also asked to rate their employer based on factors such as pay equity, parental-leave policies, leadership training programs for women, representation of women in upper management, and employer response to incidents of discrimination. Further research was conducted into each company’s presence of women in executive management or board positions.
Significant industry suppliers named to the list include:
- General Mills, Minneapolis (No. 10)
- Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, Ohio (No. 54)
- Molson Coors, Chicago (No. 143)
- Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta (No. 196)
- Anheuser-Busch InBev, New York (No. 220)
- Keurig Dr Pepper, Plano, Texas (No. 273)
- Nestle, Arlington, Virginia (No. 274)
- The Hershey Co., Hershey, Pennsylvania (No. 278)
- Bimbo Bakeries, Fort Worth, Texas (No. 281)
- Sysco, Houston (No. 322)
- Kellogg, Battle Creek, Michigan (No. 355)
- PepsiCo, Purchase, New York (No. 387)
Women-Led Businesses
The share of women holding top executive positions in the U.S. has grown steadily in recent years, according to a recent report in U.S. News and World Report. Crunching numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, the magazine found women held 31.7% of top executive positions across industries in 2021, a nearly five-point increase since 2015, when it stood at 27.1%.
However, despite making up 47.4% of the American workforce, women hold just 42.1% of all managerial positions. These rates have crept closer in recent years, but men still fill a disproportionate amount of these roles, the report said.
A state-level look shows a broad disparity between the states with the highest share of women in top executive positions and those with the lowest.
In New Mexico, 46.1% of top executive positions are held by females, the highest share of any state in the country. Vermont (44.3%), Delaware (42.4%) and Montana (42.1%) are the only other states with rates higher than 40%.
If Washington, D.C., were a state, it would be at the top of the list. Women make up 51.9% of the workforce in the district, where over half of top executives—50.7%—are women.
Meanwhile, Alaska and Colorado stand as the best states in the nation for female entrepreneurs, according to an OnDeck report citing U.S. Census data.
Small-business lender OnDeck found Alaska has the highest share of female-owned business in the country, with nearly one in four (24.7%) businesses founded by women. Colorado stands in second place with 23.8% of business founded by women.
The Denver metro area, in particular, has some of the nation’s highest concentrations of female-owned businesses, according to Fox31, with 24.80% of business founded by women. St. Louis is the only city to rate stronger, with 24.84%.
Meet Cracker Jill
Frito-Lay’s Cracker Jack brand in July recognized nine young women athletes with its inaugural I Am Cracker Jill Awards. The recipients will receive $5,000 from Cracker Jack to support their sports endeavors.
Cracker Jack's commitment to investing in women's sports through the Cracker Jill program also includes donating $400,000 to date to the national non-profit Women's Sports Foundation to expand access and opportunities for girls and women in sport so they can play, compete and lead without barriers. Last year, Frito-Lay launched the All-In With Frito Lay program, a three-year commitment to increase equity in sports by working with partners and organizations to enhance resources and training for young athletes.
The grand prize winner, Lindsey Zurbrugg, was also selected to represent aspiring female athletes across the country by being the first athlete to join the Cracker Jill roster and appear on special-edition Cracker Jill packaging.
Lindsey Zurbrugg, who competes is wheelchair basketball is from Hillsboro, Oregon. She said she understands the important life lessons people can learn from sports like the importance of accountability, work ethic and timeliness.
Cracker Jack is a brand of Plano, Texas-based Frito-Lay, the convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo, Purchase, New York.
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