Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Women CFOs are still an itty bitty minority, Reynolds American CEO Susan Cameron is looking toward the future of tobacco and Italian banker Marina Natale is setting her sights on a chief executive job. Plus, people are still talking about Patricia Arquette.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• Really?! Really. Women CFOs may be less likely to commit fraud and more inclined toward moral behavior, but that won't help the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 companies: Only 58 members of the Fortune 500 have female CFOs, according to an analysis done by Fortune in collaboration with S&P Capital IQ. That's 14 more than than there were in 2010, but still only 11.6% of the total pool. Perhaps if that figure were to rise more significantly, we'd see less corporate fraud. Fortune
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Keeping the tobacco business from going up in smoke. Reynolds American CEO Susan Cameron talked to the The Wall Street Journal about the challenges of leading a giant merger, the 1990's "clowns... swearing nicotine was good for you," a business environment "constipated with regulation" and the future of smoking. WSJ
• The diva may be distressed. Patriarch Partners, an investment firm led by Lynn Tilton, is facing possible SEC charges for allegedly providing investors with financial statements that misstated the real value of the securities underlying collateralized loan obligations ("CLOs") it created. In a letter to investors, Patriarch disagreed with the SEC, saying it used a "conservative methodology" to value the loans. Bloomberg
• What glass ceiling? Marina Natale, finance chief of UniCredit SpA and the highest-ranking woman in Italian banking, has set her sights on the top spot. "My ambition is not only to be a technician working behind the scenes," she said in an interview. "In the future, I’d like to try the role of chief executive officer." Bloomberg
• A teachable moment. A Northeastern University professor searched the approximately 14 million reviews on Rate My Professor and compared the most common words used to describe men and women. For male professors, terms like smart, idiot, interesting and cool were used. For females, the most common words were sweet, shrill, warm, and cold. The takeaway: Men are judged on intelligence, while women are judged for how much they nurture. NPR
• Another vote for pay equity. Patricia Arquette is in good company: IMF chief Christine Lagarde told The Huffington Post that gender equality in business is about more than just female empowerment; it's simply good economics. Huffington Post
• Trappings of a power couple. Mary Jo White chairs the SEC. Her husband is an attorney at one of the nation's premier law firms. The result is that in the almost two years since White has led the financial regulator, ethics rules have required her to recuse herself from more than 48 enforcement investigations, a New York Times investigation found. NY Times
• Strong casting material. Oscar winner Marisa Tomei will play Gloria Steinem in "Ms.," a miniseries currently in development with HBO. The Wrap
• Stamp of approval. Maya Angelou will be honored with a forever postage stamp, the U.S. Postal service announced yesterday. NBC News
• Making a healthy living. As the healthcare industry grows, its reliable middle-class income path is being followed mainly by women. NY Times
• MOVERS AND SHAKERS. Marketing veteran Cynthia Erland will join American Apparel to lead its marketing and communications efforts. Most recently, Ms. Erland was a senior marketing executive at Perry Ellis International. WSJ
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Blind ambition. To address the perpetual dearth of women in technology, a startup called GapJumpers is providing software thatallows tech companies to run a blind first-round application process. Fast Company
• Keeping his word. Last year, tech lawyer Ed Zimmerman said he would not participate in a four-person panel unless there was at least one women speaking on it as well. He then refused to attend other all-male tech events. "The results of his social experiment are surprising… Or not so much, if you’ve come to expect the depressing reality," writes Fortune's Erin Griffith. Fortune
• Wage gaps for everyone! The gender wage gap exists in basically every occupation, from driving trucks to selling real estate to running companies. WSJ
• Breaking the cycle. In an interview with Grist, chef Amanda Cohen talks about everything from the pitfalls of the tipping system to getting investors to notice female chefs. "When investors don’t hear about us, instead of investing in women chefs, they invest in the male chefs that they’re hearing about," she says. "The cycle never ends because women are being left out of this discussion entirely." Grist
• Tell us how you really feel. Oscar winner Patricia Arquette's rallying cry to fix the wage gap for women — and her post-win backstage comments — caught some serious flak from some, while others defended her remarks as "well-intentioned." What do you think? Do you admire Arquette for speaking out, or did she miss her mark? Tell me at deena.shanker@fortune.com.
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QUOTE
My whole career has been one rejection after another, and then going back and back and pushing against everything and everybody. Getting ahead by small, ugly steps.
The late, great Joan Rivers, who was left out of the Oscars' In Memoriam on Sunday night
