Susan Horton is one of the lucky ones. She never had a glass ceiling to break through, and instead of being shunned by the "old boys' network," she was hired by it.

As CEO of Spokane-based Wheatland Bank, Horton is among a growing number of women who are flourishing in the $11.5 trillion banking industry. She is one of five women from Washington named to U.S. Banker Magazine's list of the 25 most powerful women in banking for 2006.

While women in corporate America clearly still lag behind their male counterparts in salary and executive positions, more and more women are discovering that banking can be a prestigious and lucrative career. In the early 1990s, there was only a handful of female bank CEOs nationwide, compared with dozens today, according to U.S. Banker.

As Horton can attest, the banking industry has come a long way since the 1950s and 1960s, when women entered the profession through the back door as secretaries and clerks and the dress code was "no pants." Today, 75 percent of the 2.1 million workers in the financial services industry are women. While that number is impressive, it's not yet time for a pat on the back, says Regina Barr, vice president of Roseville, Minn.-based Financial Women International, one of the nation's oldest membership organizations of financial executives.

Women hold only 17.9 percent of executive positions at the top 100 U.S. commercial banks, with four banks having a female CEO and eight banks having female chief financial officers, according to a recent FWI "Women at the Top" study. At the 100 largest statechartered (community) commercial banks, women hold only 14.7 percent of executive positions.

"It doesn't look good, no matter how you slice it," says Barr, who spent 15 years in the financial services industry before starting her consulting firm, Red Ladder Inc. "But there is still hope."

The study attributed the low numbers to several factors: Women are more likely to work part time; they don't promote themselves aggressively; and they are most often in mid- to upper-level marketing and human resources positions - jobs that don't offer profit-and-loss responsibilities, which they would need to be considered for top-level posts.

"Women do a great job of working hard and getting results, but they need to do a better job of showcasing their work," Barr explains.

She says women historically have risen faster in smaller, community banks, mainly because they have had more opportunities to work in every aspect of the bank.

"It's amazing to me that there are so few women at the executive level," says Melanie Dressel, CEO of Tacoma-based Columbia Bank. She says the banking industry provides unlimited opportunities for women. When she started as a bank clerk in 1974, Dressel didn't intend on making it her career. She needed a job to help pay for law school. But after several promotions from various banks, she climbed her way to the CEO position at Columbia. "I'm still on my way to law school 33 years later."

Carol Nelson, CEO of Everett-based Cascade Bank, credits mentors for her success and lauds Cascade's board for being progressive in hiring a woman and minority member for the top job.

A third-generation Japanese-American, Nelson had a successful 22-year career at Seafirst Bank, then Bank of America, before being recruited for the top spot at Cascade six years ago. The former BofA senior vice president took over at a critical point in the Everett bank's transformation from an old-line thrift organization to a full-service community bank.

At age 37, Horton, who already had a successful accounting practice, became one of the country's youngest bank CEOs when she was recruited to the top post at Wheatland.