Women Now Occupy ¼ of Russell 3000 Board Seats

Over a quarter (25.6%) of the Russell 3000 company board seats are now held by women, confirmed 50/50 Women on Boards (WOB); a US non-profit driving the movement toward gender balance and diversity on corporate boards. That’s up from 22.6% in 2020, 20.4% in 2019, 17.7% in 2018 and 16% in 2017.

In fact, it’s the largest year-over-year increase in women on corporate boards on the Russell 3000. The three-percentage point increase from 2020 to 2021 is the largest increase in the past four years; representing a 9.6 percentage increase since 2017. If increases continue at this rate, corporate boards are estimated to be gender-balanced by the year 2029. 

Using data provided by Equilar, 50/50 Women on Boards Gender Diversity Index key findings also reveal that the percentage of women of the 100 largest companies of the Russell 3000 Index is 32.1%; up from 29.9% in 2020. And of the smallest 1,000 companies the percentage of women in 2021 is 22.0%, up from is 18.2% in 2020. Currently 1,602 board members, including 126 women and 1,476 men, have served on their respective boards for more than two decades.

MORE WOMEN ON BOARDS

“In the last four years, there has been a nearly 10% increase in women on boards. We applaud the corporations and executive leaders who have taken deliberate actions to build gender balanced and diverse boards,” stated Stephanie Sonnabend, Co-Founder and Chair of 50/50 Women on Boards. “However, we recommend that companies continue to self-evaluate their board needs; and are intentional about diversifying their boards to better represent their employees, customers and investors.”

KEY FINDINGS

Other significant year-on-year key findings, reveal that:

• 215 or (7%) of Russell 3000 Index companies are Gender Balanced (GB), up from 5% in Q2 2020. 
• 1,023 (34%) of Russell 3000 Index companies have 3+ women, the same percentage that have two women. 
• One quarter of the companies have one or no women on their boards, including 110 or 4% with no women. A significant improvement from 2017 when over 50% of the companies had one or no women on their boards. 
• Of the 1,843 board directors who joined boards in the first half of 2021, 799 or 43% were women. This is a similar percentage to the last six months of 2020; but significantly higher than the first six months of 2020 when the percentage was only 37%. 
• Only 17% of board directors self-report their race and ethnicity; and only 12% of board directors are people of colour, 5% women and 7% men. However, of those directors who have joined boards in the past year, 25% are people of colour; 12% women of colour and 13% men of colour. 
• Of the 25 states with 20 or more public companies headquartered in that state, 12 have 25% or more women on boards. The top three states in percentage of women on boards are Washington, California, and Michigan. 
• Nevada, Florida, and Pennsylvania have the least number of women on their boards. 
• Seven of the 11 sectors designated by Yahoo! Finance have more than 25% of women on boards.

LONG WAY TO REACH PARITY

“Since its inception, 50/50 Women on Boards has tracked publicly traded companies and has been a leader in education and advocacy; driving the movement toward gender balance and diversity on corporate boards,” explained Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, CEO of 50/50 Women on Boards. “Clearly, there is more work to be done to achieve women holding 50% of all corporate board seats; and women of colour holding at least 20% of all corporate board seats. We will continue to educate, advocate, collaborate and report on the research to advance women, including women of colour, to corporate boards.”

Click here to access the full report.

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