The Best Places to Work for Women in Texas: New National Rankings Show Houston and Dallas’ True Female Business Power

The Texas business scene just earned another knockout honor. Twenty-two Lone Star State companies snagged spots on Forbes magazine’s first-ever rankings of the Best Employers for Women.

It’s a time for empowerment, and some Texas businesses treat their female workforce right.

Dallas and Houston did particularly well in the rankings, placing nine and seven companies on the coveted list, respectively.

Two Texas employers landed in the Top 20 — one in Houston and one in Austin. Keller Williams, the storied real estate firm based in Austin, came in at No. 6 in America, and always highly-ranked Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston earned the No. 11 spot.

The highest-ranking Dallas area company was the Frisco Independent School District at No. 64 overall.

Texas is willing to put in the work. After all, CNBC just ranked it the top city for business in the entire country again after a long (for Texas) drought.

Treating women fairly still seems to be something too many businesses still somehow struggle with, though. Women are still earning 80.5 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report, but these new rankings bring some good news.

There may be a long way to go, but it’s good the Lone Star State is helping set the path.

Three more Houston-area organizations earned rankings in the Top 100. Fort Bend Independent School District ranked 57th, Royal Dutch Shell came in at No. 75 and ExxonMobil finished at No. 79. You’ll see some more Houston nods later down the list: Chevron Phillips Chemical at No. 210, Academy Sports & Outdoors at No. 215 and Schlumberger at No. 235.

Dallas and North Texas are also represented on the list by the University of North Texas (No. 104), Southwest Airlines (No. 167), Mary Kay (surprisingly only No. 217), Half Price Books (No. 221), Toyota (No. 222), Kimberly-Clark (No. 229), Tyler Technologies (No. 247) and AT&T (No. 281).

Forbes partnered up with market research firm Statista to create the list of the Top 300 companies for women, based on female employees’ ratings of the organization’s diversity, their working conditions and the likelihood they would recommend their employer to others. They conducted anonymous surveys of 40,000 Americans, including 25,000 women, all working for businesses with 1,000 employees or more.

Here are all 22 Texas companies who made Forbes’ Best Employers for Women rankings:

• Keller Williams, Austin, No. 6
• Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, No. 11
• Fort Bend ISD, Sugar Land, No. 57
• United Services Automobile Association (USAA), San Antonio, No. 62
• Frisco Independent School District, Frisco, No. 64
• Royal Dutch Shell, Houston, No. 75
• ExxonMobil, Irving, No. 79
• Whole Foods Market, Austin, No. 93
• University of North Texas, Denton, No. 104
• Southwest Airlines, Dallas, No. 167
• Chuy’s, Austin, No. 188
• Texas State University, San Marcos, No. 203
• Chevron Phillips Chemical, The Woodlands, No. 210
• Academy Sports + Outdoors, Katy, No. 215
• Mary Kay, Addison, No. 217
• Half Price Books, Dallas, No. 221
• Toyota USA, Dallas, No. 222
• Kimberly-Clark, Irving, No. 229
• Schlumberger, Sugar Land, No. 235
• Tyler Technologies, Plano, No. 247
• H-E-B Grocery Stores, San Antonio, No. 264
• AT&T, Dallas, No. 281