Women Not Expected to Hold 50% Board Seats for Another 8 Years

Although last year was a watershed year for women on boards, representing 42.5% of all new appointees at US public companies, they are not expected to hold 50% of corporate board seats for at least another eight years, at the current rate of change, revealed a new study. 

According to 50/50 Women on Boards’ (50/50WOB) latest report, the percentage of women appointees needs to increase by 5.8% year-over-year to cut the timeline in half and reach the 50% goal by 2026. Its latest report, entitled Women Leading Boards, women held 27% of all board seats in 2021; up from 24% in 2020. That’s the largest year-over-year increase among the Russell 3000; and far above its average annual increase of 2.14% for women on boards.  

LACK OF PEOPLE OF COLOUR ON BOARDS

The report also showed the need for achieving greater diversity on boards. Based on those who chose to self-disclose their race, only 6% women of colour and 9% men of colour hold board seats. Other key findings, revealed that:

• As of February 2022, 114 women were appointed to public company boards, with 58% of those women being appointed to a board for the first time.
• 42.3% of all public board appointments for the year 2021 were women.
• As of 31 December 2021, women hold 26.7% of the Russell 3000 company board seats; a 10.7% increase over the last five years.
• 61.6% of women appointments in 2021 were first-time appointments.
• The share of newly appointed directors who come from nontraditional backgrounds has increased from 13.0% to 18.9% since 2019.

“This new report shows that while gender diversity is increasing in US boardrooms, bold change still needs to occur,” said Edie Fraser, CEO of WBC. “Additionally, with more women exiting the workforce due to the effect of the pandemic, organisations need to ensure a robust pipeline of qualified women board candidates.”

DRIVING BOARD DIVERSITY

The report “highlights the work that remains to continue to drive the movement for diversity on corporate boards”, added Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, CEO of 50/50 Women on Boards. “The more organisations shed light on this issue, the more women and women of colour will be encouraged to find their path to a corporate board earlier in their careers.”

The report also features six insight pieces from 50/50 WOB, Bolster, Diligent Institute, Digital Directors Network & Emerald Growth Partners LLC, the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA) and The Lodis Forum. It also contains collective data and insight from 23 organisations focused on advancing women and diversity boards and is the only industry tracker for appointees across the Fortune 500, S&P 500, Russell 3000 and private companies. To read the full report, click here.

Companies with women CEOs tend to have significantly more women in leadership roles and on the board, confirmed a recent global study. Click here to read more.