Women keep reaching new highs in America’s boardrooms — but they’re still a decade away from reaching parity.
While women occupied a record 33.5% of S&P 500 companies’ board seats at the end of last year, the ratio was 50-50 or more at just 29 companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
At the current pace, the gender ratio won’t reach parity until 2032, as last year’s gains were below the pace set in 2019 and 2020, when boards responded to heightened activist pressure by adding more women and people of color. What’s more, the recent conservative-led backlash has had a chilling impact on some corporate diversity initiatives.
Adding more women ensures “that you have diverse perspectives,” said Heather Spilsbury, CEO of 50/50 Women on Boards, which advocates for boardroom parity. “And that’s the imperative because I think that helps broaden the company’s perspective.”
Asked about the criticism that diversity efforts could tip the scales too far toward one demographic, Jane Stevenson, vice chair of executive recruiter Korn Ferry, said, “I have absolutely less than zero concern that there will be too many women on boards.
“When we can start to worry is when over 50% of boards are over 50% women.”
NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange, Hasbro, Paramount Global, American Water Works and Omnicom Group are the S&P 500 companies with female representation of at least 60% on their boards, according to the Bloomberg data.
A decade ago, ICE had one female director amid a group of white men, said Andrew Surdykowski, ICE’s general counsel. It was then that the company decided it needed to diversify its board, setting a schedule starting in 2016 to have longer-term members be replaced by a more diverse slate of directors, he said. The board has a short list of candidates that’s reviewed regularly, he said.
“There were some difficult conversations, but we were upfront with the full board, telling them this is what we’re going to do,” he said.
The board, which first reached 60% women in 2022, uses many criteria when selecting new directors, Surdykowski said. One of the first directors picked during the beginning of the campaign was a White male, whom the board added because of his cybersecurity expertise, he said. The expectation is the female-male ratio will ebb and flow, Surdykowski said.
Hasbro, which has 64% women and is tied with Paramount Global for the highest ratio in the S&P 500, doesn’t have a target but wants leadership to mirror its market, said Chief Communications Officer Roberta Thomson. The leadership team is half women, and a quarter of the group are Black women, she said.
“We consider a diverse board and leadership team tremendous benefits in serving our fans, employees, shareholders and partners,” Thomson said.
The best outcome will be as close to an even gender split as possible for all corporate boards, said Spilsbury of 50/50 Women on Boards. There are 27 boards in the Russell 3000 that have more than 60% women, according to the group’s database.
“We believe you should have equal parts, and we don’t want to take men out of the mix, per se,” Spilsbury said. “Too much of any one thing on any board may not serve the company well.”
In December, women held 10 more S&P 500 seats than the previous month, according to Bloomberg data. The average number of female directors was unchanged at 3.7, out of an average board size of 11.1. Among the other findings:
- The percentage of female directorships increased to 33.5% in December from 33.4% in November. That’s roughly double the 16.7% figure for companies in Japan’s Nikkei 225,and compares with 19.5% for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, 37.7% for Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and 39.9% for Europe’s Stoxx 600.
- Fifteen S&P 500 companies — including Procter & Gamble, International Business Machines and General Electric — increased the number of women on their boards in December.
- Four companies — including Cisco Systems, Crown Castle and Digital Realty Trust — reduced the number of female directors during the month.
- Charter Communications has the lowest percentage of women on its board.
- The materials sector led the net gain in female board members, with one woman added each to the boards of Air Products & Chemicals and Ecolab.
- Real estate notched a net decline of two female directors, with Crown Castle and Digital Realty losing female board members.