GAO

Women on Corporate Boards
Strategies to Address Representation of Women Include Federal Disclosure
Requirements
AN OVERVIEW FROM GAO-16-30

Women are underrepresented on corporate boards.

Women account for 16% of corporate board members...[Footnote 1]
[Footnote 1] GAO analysis of directors at companies in the S&P1500, an
index of public companies, 1997-2014.
[Graphic of 100 individuals: 16 of which are shaded pink. The rest, 84,
are shaded blue.]

...compared to 47% of the workforce.[Footnote 2]
[Footnote 2] BLS Reports, Women in the Labor Force: A Databook, U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report 1052, Dec. 2014.
[Graphic of 100 individuals: 47 of which are shaded pink. The rest, 53,
are shaded blue.]

Representation has been increasing, but greater gender balance could be
decades away.

Women's representation has nearly doubled from about 8% in 1997 to about
16% in 2014.
[Graphic of pink-shaded figure standing stoically.]

However, if women joined boards as often as men beginning in 2015, we
estimated parity may be more than four decades away. 
[Graphic of same pink-shaded, stoic figure staring at a calendar dated
November 2055.]

[Graphic of line chart: "Actual percentage of female directors.
Projected percentage of female directors"]
This projection assumes that women join boards in equal proportion to
men. Further, this projection assumes that 600 board seats (about 4% of
the total) turn over each year, and that male board members are slightly
more likely to leave the board each year because they are older, on
average, than female board members.
Source: GAO analysis of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS)
data on corporations in the S&P 1500. | GAO-16-30

Various factors affect women’s increased representation.

[Triptych of various factors] 
[Left panel, in a corporate boardroom, a line of six blue shaded figures
stand with one pink shaded figure behind a stanchion. These seven
figures overlook a corporate board table surrounded by three blue-shaded
corporate figures, one pink-shaded corporate figure, and an empty
chair.]
Women are less represented in the traditional pipeline to board
membership, for example, with either CEO or board experience.

[middle panel, the same corporate board table is more in focus and now
shows a total of 7 blue-shaded corporate figures, one pink-shaded
corporate figure and one empty chair.] Turnover of board seats is low.

[right panel, outside of the corporate boardroom, one of the blue-shaded
figures is shaking hands with a blue-shaded corporate figure while three
more figures, one pink-shaded, two blue-shaded, overlook.]

What can be done in the U.S. to address women’s representation?

[Image of briefcase]
Most CEOs, board directors, and investors we interviewed said business,
not government, should play the primary role in increasing gender
diversity. They also said SEC disclosure requirements on board diversity
do not always yield useful information.

[Image of a document titled "Proxy"]
SEC officials said they plan to review current disclosure requirements
on board diversity as part of an ongoing effort to review all disclosure
requirements.

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