ABSTRACT
The study of women in elites should be more than the listing of proportions of women in top jobs in various countries and in various activity systems. Their participation in elites should be considered within the framework of general processes of elite reproduction. These processes have changed in recent years. Adopting the conceptualization of Bourdieu (Stanworth and Giddens, 1974), it can be said that business has shifted its exclusive focus on the need for economic capital to a focus on the need for social and cultural capital. To the extent that this is the case, women’s chances for participation will increase at least to some extent in the near future.
