In what is nothing short of staggering, there are currently no women CEOs at the helm of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies. With VMWare’s CEO and Founder, Diane Greene, having been ousted from the company in the last week, the official count of female CEOs is down to mind-blowing ZERO! And even outside of CEO positions, the number of women in C-level and other top level positions is very low according to The Mercury News.

Previously, there were high-profile Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay until she stepped down and Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP, until her controversial exit. Susan Decker, President of Yahoo and Safra Catz, President & CFO of Oracle are the only ones left standing. There are a few others holding EVP and other high-level roles at companies such as Ann Livermore, EVP at HP, and Sheryl Sandberg of former Google fame who is now COO at Facebook.

“It’s easier for a female to start her own company than to move through the ranks of a big corporation. You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission in a start-up”. -Jessica Livingston, who helps run an early-stage start-up funding company called Y Combinator.

“The people making key decisions - directors who hire CEOs for public companies, or venture capital partners who dole out funding - tend to be men. While that doesn’t mean men are deliberately holding women back, those decisions are often based on ‘who you know and who you’re comfortable with’.“- Cindy Padnos, who has been CEO at two private software firms and is now putting together a venture capital firm that will target companies led by women.

(Photo: Diane Greene, ex-CEO, VMWare. Source: WSJ)

Related Posts: The Under-Representation of Women in Science and Engineering - Part I, Part II.