[originaltext] Carly Fiorina was the first chief executive chosen from outsi

Carly Fiorina was the first chief executive chosen from outside to make changes at the technology company, Hewlett-Packard. Fortune magazine named her "the most powerful woman in business".
    Soon after she arrived at H-P, a lot of people thought (29) she meant that women and minorities face no barriers to rising in companies. A research group found that women held sixteen percent of top jobs at the largest American companies in 2002. Many chief executives keep their jobs just three or four years. Miz Fiorina stayed almost six. Some people say Carly Fiorina received the same treatment that a man would have received. (30) Critics said she kept too much power to herself. They said her actions harmed financial performance. H-P stock now sells for less than half its price when she arrived. In 2001 she announced a deal to combine Hewlett-Packard with Compaq Computer. Some shareholders resisted. Walter Hewlett, the son of one of the two men who started H-P, opposed the deal in court. But shareholders approved it in March of 2002. (31) Results have been mixed. Since the merger with Compaq, H-P has increased its share of the world computer market to almost sixteen percent. But Dell has grown faster. That company now holds almost twenty percent of the highly competitive market. (31)Still, H-P remains the leading maker of computer printers in the world. And it is now the eleventh largest company in the United States.