Glass Ceiling on Board Membership Hasn't Cracked For Women or Minorities

Release of Fortune magazine's annual Fortune 500 issue is always the occasion for analysis and debate about business trends. One that does not appear to be changing much is the ethnic, racial and gender make-up of corporate boards. Sheila Shayon reports in Brand Channel that white men still predominate, holding approximately 73% of such positions. This suggests that despite the rhetoric and interest group pressure, the cultural affinities that govern corporate goverance decisions are still driven by familiarity and personal comfort. Until businesses are convinced there is a business reason to change (either positive, like the potential to enter lucrative new markets, or negative, like the threat of lost business due to threats) this is unlikely to change:

"The proverbial glass ceiling is still firmly in corporate America, as men continue their dominance in the private sector.

Women and minorities are still underrepresented on U.S. corporate boards according to the recent report, “Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards — 2010 Alliance for Board Diversity Census.”

“Missing Pieces shows that, six years after the first Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD) Census, not much has changed. While research points decisively to the benefits of a diverse boardroom— including enhanced financial performance—white men continue to dominate corporate boards and have, in fact, increased their presence since 2004. Women and minorities are still vastly underrepresented."

“Six years after the first ABD Census, not much has changed. White men continue to dominate corporate boards and have, in fact, increased their presence since 2004, commented Ilene Lang, CEO, of research firm Catalyst and chairman of the alliance, to Bloomberg.

only does this reflect poorly on efforts to more accurately reflect shareholders, employees and markets – it’s bad for business.

“More diverse boards, on average, are linked with better financial performance,” adds Lang.

In terms of global presence and performance, this trend will hinder U.S leadership in reaching its potential.

The data was culled from all companies in the 2010 Fortune 100 and 491 companies in the Fortune 500 that had complete statistics on race, ethnicity and gender.

Procter & Gamble, IBM, and CitiGroup were exceptions in Fortune 500 companies, including all of the U.S. Census Bureau’s major groups in the boardroom.