Gender diversity on corporate boards and in the C-suite is moving in the right direction, but very slowly.
The latest Altrata report, Global Gender Diversity 2023, examines the degree of female representation on corporate boards and leadership teams across 20 major economies (the Global 20) at the first quarter of 2023. The report also explores the pipeline of female talent for future board and C-suite positions. BoardEx data suggest that not enough women are accumulating the corporate experience necessary to progress to the most senior roles.
The report finds that women account for only 30% of board members at the corporations that make up the major indices of the Global 20. France continues to be the clear leader, with women accounting for almost 44% of board members of the companies in the CAC 40. Italy and the UK follow, having both broken through the 40% barrier, and the US ranks 13th. In all 20 countries, the share of female board members has increased since 2014.
The report also found
- Women made up 19.2% of new leadership team appointees among the Global 20 in the year to Q1 2023, slightly lower than the 20.5% among the leadership team as a whole – indicating the danger of uneven progress
- Seven countries have below 25% female board representation, although they all saw an improvement in the year up to Q1 2023, including Singapore, India, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan and the UAE
- Only 8.2% of CEO positions in the S&P500 are held by women
- Large US private companies fare slightly better in terms of gender diversity, with just over 30% female representation in leadership
The report goes on to examine gender diversity in five key C-suite roles, senior executives’ corporate action experience, the impact that female leaders appear to have on gender diversity in the companies they helm and their top interests outside of work. For companies looking to bring more women into senior roles, Altrata’s Global Gender Diversity 2023 report should not be missed.
Maya Imberg is the Head of Thought Leadership and Analytics at Altrata. She is responsible for spearheading the company’s thought leadership efforts and overseeing its analytics and predictive modeling services commissioned by clients. She joined Wealth-X in 2016 as Director of Custom Research responsible for secondary research, data analytics and branded content. Maya has over fifteen years of experience in research, spanning market research, macroeconomics and financial services. Prior to joining Wealth-X, Maya held a variety of consultant and economist roles at the Economist Intelligence Unit and spent a number of years working for Datamonitor’s Financial Services practice. Maya holds an undergraduate and MSc degree in economics and comparative politics from the University of Pennsylvania and London School of Economics respectively.