As president and CEO of Golden Pacific Bank in Sacramento, Virginia Varela is among just 4 percent of women who hold the top C-suite title in the field of banking.

Alice Sauro became executive director of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera in 2015, during what she calls the Philharmonic & Opera’s “dark season.”

Wendy Saunders is executive director of the Capitol Area Development Authority, whose mission is to make housing in the area around the Capitol more affordable and manage and develop residential and commercial properties.

Raksmey Roeum-Castleman, administrator at Telecare Corporation, oversees 25 employees in three health care programs at Telecare, teaches health, kickboxing and yoga at San Joaquin Delta College and collaborates with Southeast Asian advocacy organizations around the country.

Fifty-seven years after the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, women still earn substantially less than men. Legislation in California is attempting to level the playing field.

Tina Reynolds is the founder and president of Uptown Studios, a multimedia design firm geared towards nonprofits, government entities and other organizations dedicated to social change.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of Western States Petroleum Association, is attempting to rebrand the petroleum industry.

Allison Otto, executive vice president of Otto Construction, was a lobbyist at the Capitol before her father called her to join the company her grandfather started in 1947.

We have an opportunity. In 2015, women held less than 24 percent of jobs in science, technology, engineering and math in the United States, despite making up more than 47 percent of our workforce, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

When Nicole Montna Van Vleck, president and CEO of Montna Farms, left the family farm to go to college and start her career, she didn’t think that she’d return.