No Women at the Table

Back in the 1950s, it was unusual for women to be in business. Today it's the other way around. The large, public company that is devoid of at least one woman on the board or among top positions is the exception.

Today, 29 companies in the S&P 500, or 9.4 percent, have no women on the board or among the five highest-paid executives. Among these are Discovery Communications, the co-owner of the Oprah Winfrey Network, and America's largest maker of uniforms, Cintas.

"It's totally insensitive," says Terry Savage, a financial journalist and longtime corporate board member. "I find it simply astounding that a company that has at least half of its ultimate users and customers as women, especially uniforms or media, I find it astounding that they don't have a woman on the board."

Some of the companies on the list have had women on the board or in senior management in the past. Others, such as Plano (Tex.)-based Denbury Resources, never have.

The companies that made the list span industries from oil and gas to real estate to investment management. Most of the 29 companies on the list refused comment for this article. Some promised that the next board member would be a woman, and other companies pointed to a recent female board member or executive.

Read on to see the public companies that have only men at the top.