TOM BROKAW, anchor (Los Angeles):

Now to our special series, BREAKING THROUGH: WOMEN ON THE JOB, women at the top. Twenty-eight million women work at all levels of corporate America. Tonight, making it to the top job. There’s new evidence that women may even be better- much better managers than men. A sign of things to come in more of America’s boardrooms? Here’s NBC’s Anne Thompson.

ANNE THOMPSON reporting: After 30 years in publishing, Jane Friedman finally sits at the head of the table.

Ms. JANE FRIEDMAN: When are you going to sales conference?

THOMPSON: Her title at Harper Collins, one she never imagined she’d have, CEO.

Ms. FRIEDMAN: The first time I said it, it didn’t ring entirely true. But I must say it rang true very quickly thereafter.

THOMPSON: In her first years, profits more than doubled. The key to success?

Ms. FRIEDMAN: You have to be extremely focused. You have to be extremely determined. I think, in many ways, without sounding arrogant, you have to be confident. And I think you have to never take your eye off the ball.

THOMPSON: If Jane Friedman can do it, why can’t more women? There are only three female CEOs in the Fortune 500, seven in the Fortune 1000. In the 1990s, surveys show no more than 5 percent of senior managers, vice presidents and above, are women. But all that may soon change. New research shows women actually may have better skills for managing than men. The Hagberg Consulting Group studying senior managers found that female executives outscored their male counterparts in 41 of 47 management criteria, including leadership and problem solving.

Mr. RICHARD HAGBERG (Hagberg Consulting Group): What emerged was the picture of women executives as being- as having a more appropriate style for managing in the new millennium. It’s a much more team-oriented style.

THOMPSON: Other advantages, women rated better at giving direction and feedback. And surprising results, many stereotypes are wrong. Women are more decisive and direct.

Ms. TRICIA NADDAFF (Management Research Group): Women are more likely to be focused on organizing. They were also more likely to step up to the plate and be willing to take charge.

THOMPSON: One of them, 31-year-old Deborah Lorenzen, a vice president at the Bank of New York and a part-time MBA student at Columbia University.

Ms. DEBORAH LORENZEN: I’ve had pretty much every opportunity that’s been available, I think, to contemporaries, male managers that are my contemporaries.

THOMPSON: The climb to the boardroom will still be difficult. New research shows women lag behind men in risk-taking, aggressiveness, and the ability to compromise. But CEO Jane Friedman believes more and more women will break through.

Ms. FRIEDMAN: American business is about to say the best person will have the job.

THOMPSON: At the top, still a man’s world, but women now with valued skills preparing more than ever to join them. Anne Thompson, NBC New York.

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