The percent of women executives heading up top publicly traded suburban companies in the Chicago area have declined 2.2 percentage points to 14.7 percent this year, according to the 2007 Chicago Network Census released Wednesday.

“It is really depressing,” said Hedy Ratner, the co-president of the Women’s Business Development Center in Chicago. “Here we have a woman running for president, and we are looking at these dismal statistics about women in leadership.”

The Chicago Network is an organization that tracks the representation of women in leadership positions from the 50 largest publicly traded companies by revenue in the Chicago area. Of these 50 companies, 31 are based in suburban communities for the 2007 census and 30 for the 2006 census.

The survey showed that of the 31 suburban companies, Nalco Holding Co. and Packaging Corp. of America have neither women directors nor women executive officers. Another company has no women directors and seven others have no women executive officers.

“We do have three women vice presidents that we consider executive officers,” said Charlie Pajor, senior manager of external communication at Nalco. “We think that the census is too narrowly defining the term.”

Nalco is searching for a new CEO and restructuring the company, Pajor said. Once complete, the Naperville-based company will appoint new members to its board, which might include well-qualified women, he said.

Packing Corp was unavailable for comment.

Four of the companies have boards where at least 25 percent of its directors are women. Three of the companies, Kraft Foods Inc., Sears Holdings Corp. and Hewitt Associates Inc., are located in the Chicago suburbs.

At least 25 percent of the executive officers at suburban companies Kraft, Hewitt and Laidlaw International Inc. are women.

Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp.’s board and its executive officer roster is at least 25 percent female.

“It seems corporations that are merging and being acquired are not considering diversity and the benefit of having women in leadership positions,” said Ratner.

According to Ratner, more women are starting business for themselves instead of trying to move up the corporate ladder because of the resistance they face there.

“Women business owners are becoming more and more successful and are bringing in more and more women to top leadership positions,” Ratner said.

She said women-owned companies seem more focused on creating a diverse working environment and are showing they can be great assets in leadership positions.

According to the Chicago Network, women represent half of the work force and influence 95 percent of goods and services purchased, yet hold only 14.3 percent of the director positions of the top 50 Chicago companies, up from 13.8 percent the year before. Women hold only 13.8 percent of the executive officer positions, down from 14.6 percent from 2006.

“The results are slow, very much slower than they should be,” said Amy Osler, executive director of the Chicago Network.

Companies might make better connections with their consumers with women in leadership positions, she noted.

Qualified women are not hard to find with 50 percent graduating with professional degrees, she said.

“It can be done if the CEO makes a strong commitment,” Osler said. “If it comes from the top down it’s not impossible to do.”