Cornell University's Institute for Women and Work, ILR School, in co-sponsorship with The Women's Executive Leadership Circle of New York (WECNY), have issued a report on a year-long research study showing that even though women have come a long way in leadership roles (including a woman candidate for President), the "gender gap" is alive and well among New York's leading top 100 public companies.

The research study examined the number of women serving on boards of directors and as high-level executives at the top 100 companies in New York. The WECNY/Cornell University study found that although women have made tremendous strides in the last 15 years in terms of securing representation on corporate boards and in executive offices, there is still a substantial gender gap, and women have a long way to go before they achieve parity in the corporate world (download the full report).

The study examined the top 100 revenue-producing public companies headquartered in New York State in 2006, according to Crain's classifications. The researchers discovered that women hold only 15.6% of the 1,129 board seats in the 100 largest companies in New York. When it comes to board membership, New York's women rank slightly above the national average.

But when it comes to the "on the ground," leadership positions, women only account for 11.9% of the 354 executive officer positions in New York's largest public companies. (The researchers defined executive officers as those holding positions of CEO, CFO, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer, and General Counsel).

Francine Moccio, Director of the Institute for Women and Work states: "When you consider that women make up 49% of New York's workforce and 52% of the voting population, it becomes clear that women are significantly underrepresented at the highest levels of corporate leadership."

While 14% of the companies studied had no women on their board, and only two had more than five women serving on their board (Estée Lauder and The New York Times), the vast majority fell somewhere in the middle. For instance, according to the report's authors, 24% of companies had one female director, while 41% had two or more women, and 21% had three or more female directors.

The fact that only four of the top 100 companies had women serving as their CEOs: Ann Taylor, Avon, The New York Times and Pepsico, indicated that these companies had done a good job of "priming the pump" by developing female executive talent at the lower levels as well.

The study's authors complied a "Top 25" list of the New York companies that have 20% or more female directors and top executives. The study seems to indicate that "gender matters" when it comes to women promoting other women up the ranks of the corporate ladder: four female-led companies listed above all made the list. In addition, the following companies made the top ten: Merrill Lynch, NYSE Group, Eastman Kodak, Scholastic Corp and Polo Ralph Lauren. Pepsi Bottling Corp, listed separately from Pepsico (listed at number 15).