A study from the University of California-Davis has found that the "glass ceiling" -- the term given to the invisible pay limit women hit and men do not -- is not a thing of the past for female executives at California-based businesses.

This issue is one to pay attention to, since discriminating against women in the workplace runs afoul of employment law statutes. Now, that should not be taken to say that the companies examined in this study are discriminating against women. There is nothing to suggest that is the case. But like we said, evidence that women are having trouble breaking into the rarefied stratum of C-suite jobs does mean we should at least keep the idea of subtle discrimination in mind.

The study, performed by the UC-Davis Graduate School of Business, found less than one out of every 10 top jobs at the 400 largest public companies that are headquartered in the Golden State are filled by women. The study also said that, assuming a .2 percent annual increase in the advancement of women, it will take about a century to achieve gender equity in leadership positions at these companies.

Furthermore, the study found that 136 out of 400 companies had no women at all on their board directors or highest-paid executives.

The dean of UC-Davis' business school said there is not a shortage of qualified women to promote into these positions, but he also said it seemed that the 400 largest companies did not seem to understand that.

Source: The Sacramento Bee, "Women's glass ceiling intact at California corporations, study shows" Mark Glover, Dec. 8, 2011