Yahoo Finance Gender diversity on Fortune 500 boards just took a step backward
The share of board seats that went to women in 2016 fell for the first time in seven years, confirming that gender parity remains a lofty goal.
Executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles (HSII) released its 9th annual Board Monitor report on Tuesday. The study analyzes the class of independent directors who filled vacant or new board seats at Fortune 500 companies.
And while the number of board seats filled hit a record high of 421 (up from 399), the number of open seats filled by women fell by 2% to 27.8%.
Based on the predictions of the report, the trend now indicates that gender parity among an incoming class of directors will not be achieved until 2032, six years later than the firm’s previous forecast.
The future of women board members
Which industries are bringing in the highest percentage of women into board seats?
Business services led the way — women made up half of all new director positions. Women filled 40% of director seats in the technology sector.
Naturally, Heidrick is analyzing a subset of companies that includes many legacy companies, with Walmart (WMT), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa, BRKb), Apple (AAPL) , Exxon Mobile (XOM), and McKesson (MCK) leading the Fortune 500 pack.
Meanwhile, startups might be more cognizant of creating a dynamic and diverse culture from the very beginning. And, it’s not just diversity for diversity’s sake. Companies with women on the board perform better financially.
Take Silicon Valley-based SurveyMonkey, which recently added Serena Williams to focus specifically on issues around diversity.
But while board members like Uber’s Arianna Huffington are pushing for continued diversity, it’s clear we still have a long way to go.
Based on leaked audio of an all-hands meeting obtained exclusively by Yahoo Finance, Huffington touted the fact that Uber was adding Wan Ling Martello, another female to the board.
“There’s a lot of data that shows when there’s one woman on the board, it’s much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board,” she said around six minutes into the recording.
Now-former Uber board member David Bonderman retorted, “Actually what it shows is it’s much likely to be more talking.” Bonderman resigned from the board after his comments were made public.
There is hope yet for more women at the table, but it will be increasingly important for companies to think about putting women in positions of leadership from the get go and being aware of potential bias against female board members.
Melody Hahm is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering entrepreneurship, technology and real estate. Follow her on Twitter @melodyhahm. Read more:
