Media may be responsible for people believing there are more female CEOs than there really are, according to Weber Shandwick's recently released "The Female CEO Reputation Premium?" survey.

ceoIn reality, women are grossly under-represented in the CEO seat of Fortune 1000 companies—not to mention multinational PR firms—with only five percent of them in the corporate catbird set.

The Interpublic unit says only eight percent of corporations worldwide with $500M in annual revenues have female CEOs.

The female CEO reputation premium study, however, found that respondents believe women run 23 percent of big companies. Female and male respondents split 25 percent to 21 percent, respectively.

Weber speculates extensive media coverage of the handful of female CEOs may reinforce the incorrect perception that women have shattered the CEO glass ceiling.

The firm says the CEO gender gap isn't closing any time soon, adding that executive misperceptions aren't helping matters. "If executives remain unaware of the glaring gap in the number of female CEOs, the impetus to course-correct will continue to languish."

The upside: overestimation of female CEOs indicates a willingness to accept women CEOs.

"Even if gender quality takes longer than desired, the chances of backsliding on the issue is highly unlikely while the prospect o continued improvement, even if painfully slow, seems inevitable," says Weber.

The PR field, which is predominately staffed by women, is uniquely qualified to spur the process of educating people about the need for more women CEOs.

Time to get to work.