May 2021 Report Summary

May 2021 Women Joining Public Boards Report -Women Are At a Historic High of 41.6% of Public Company Board Appointments

In May public companies appointed 149 women and 209 men to their boards. Women thus comprised 41.6% of all public board appointments – keeping in line with the past 7-month trend.

The women appointed to fill board seats continue to diversify, with self-reporting going up by 65% from last month, bringing women of color to 34% of female public board appointees. 51 women disclosed their ethnicities with 32 (or 62.7%) identifying as Black / African American, closely followed by 10 Asian/Pacific Islanders, 8 women identifying as Hispanic and 1 woman identifying as Middle Eastern/North African. FIGS Inc, The Walt Disney Company, and Goldman Sachs Co. are some of the companies that appointed this phenomenal group of diverse women to their boards. This trend towards including diverse voices in leadership is one that continues from the Board to the C-Suite and across discussions of building finance and opportunity for women across all industries.

Of the 149 women appointed to the boards of public companies, 87 were first time board appointments. Companies such as Ford Motor Company and Kraft Heinz appointed these first time female directors. We will continue to track and ensure women occupy board seats across all industries and that the pipeline is strong.

In May, technology companies lead the way in the appointment of women with women comprising 16.8% of new appointments to board seats, followed by healthcare (16.1%) and financial services (14.8%). In the financial services sector, we see strides being made by women at companies like Heartland Financial USA, Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corporation.

The overall trend across companies continues to hold steady at over 40%. Having said that, there is still a lot of progress to be made among the women of color and LGBTQ sub-segments. Equilar and WBC are tracking and analyzing the growth and rotation of board seats and the expanding candidate pool. We will continue to track not only the women in terms of numbers, diversity and profile; but the companies and industries in which female board members are present and how many of the overall board seats are held by women. The time is now for women to sit across all companies, boards, and sectors. Please, join us in celebrating, tracking, analyzing, and promoting women on boards of public companies.