The percentage of women on boards of large US companies reached an all-time high this year amid growing calls from institutional investors for greater board diversity, according to a study by proxy advisory firm ISS.
Women now account for 18.7 percent of all board members of companies in the S&P 500, an increase from 16.3 percent in 2011, the study shows.
Women this year also constituted 30 percent of all new board appointees at S&P 500 companies, double the level of 2008, when they accounted for 15 percent. At Russell 3000 companies, women accounted for 22 percent of all new board appointees, also double the 2008 figure of 11 percent.
‘While women still make up less than 20 percent of US boards on average, movement toward greater gender parity is evident with the proportion of new nominees who are women nearly doubling over the past seven years at larger firms,’ says Edward Kamonjoh, report author and ISS head of ESG research, in a press release. ‘Investors’ calls for greater gender diversity appear to be nudging nominating committees to find more women to serve on boards at US firms.’
The ISS report also shows the number of women increasing on boards in other countries that don’t have any type of quotas for female board representation. The percentage of women on boards of FTSE 350 companies rose to 18.5 percent this year from about 10 percent in 2008, while women made up 14.6 percent of Canada’s TSX Composite Index, up from 10.6 percent six years ago. Australia’s ASX 300 boards are 14.7 percent female.
‘The global uptick in female board representation is not surprising when measured alongside the growing emphasis by investors on board diversity,’ says Chris Caras, ISS head of data solution sales, in the statement. ‘More and more investors are using ISS Governance QuickScore to screen portfolio companies based on board gender representation together with additional QuickScore factors such as director tenure. This is resulting in greater engagement between institutions and investee firms on the issue of board diversity.’
