#ChooseToChallenge the Lack of Women on Boards

#ChooseToChallenge, the theme of International Women’s Day this year, is an opportunity for us to celebrate the tremendous efforts by women around the world in shaping a more equal future. Over the past decade, we have seen amazing progress in achieving gender parity. While the highly challenging events of 2020 turned workplaces upside down, the crisis also brought opportunity. We are now seeing more companies taking steps to make significant investments in building more flexible and empathetic workplaces, creating a culture in which women have equal opportunity over the long term.

As our 2021 Global Governance Trends report recently showed, DE&I, particularly regarding gender, is increasingly a priority for business leaders around the world. The research is clear that increasing diversity in the workforce—and specifically in leadership roles—drives better outcomes for businesses.

At Russell Reynolds Associates, we are committed to practicing the initiatives and strategies that we recommend to clients by embracing diversity and inclusion within our own firm. In fact, women make up 44 percent of our Executive Committee. We are a sponsor of the 30% Club, which advocates for improved gender balance on boards. When the 30 percent campaign originally launched in the UK back in 2010, FTSE 100 boards were only 12 percent women. That goal has now been achieved, with 33 percent of FTSE 100 board member roles being filled by women. Today, 24.7 percent of S&P 100 directors are women, up from 20.2 percent at launch in 2014.

How far we have come, yet how far we still have to go.

To encourage faster change, a number of countries are taking action to encourage or mandate practices that result in increased gender diversity in boardrooms. A few examples:

• In the United Kingdom, the Hampton-Alexander Review set a target of 33 percent representation of women on FTSE 350 boards and similarly on executive committees and with their direct reports, by the end of 2020.
• In India, national laws mandating companies appoint at least one woman director to the board have resulted in women now sitting on 76 percent of NSE 500 company boards.
• In Germany, since a law mandating equal representation of men and women in leadership positions was passed in 2015, the share of women in the management of boards of DAX30 companies has grown by 5 percentage points.  
• In the United States, at least 12 states and the NASDAQ stock exchange have enacted or are considering legislation mandating a minimum percentage of female directors or increased disclosure about diversity statistics at the board and senior leadership levels.

Efforts like these are an important step toward improving gender diversity in the most senior levels of organizations but, by themselves, they are not enough. Our mission is to improve the way the world is led—and to do that, we believe in our power to go beyond statutory minimums to truly improve both the diversity and inclusivity of their boards and leadership teams.

We challenge boards and set bold visions to achieve greater diversity by using practices that debias critical steps in the recruiting process and encourage a balanced slate of diverse candidates. As a collective, we understand that gender diversity is more than just a compliance measure. Organizations need to transform to attract diverse candidates and, just as important, to retain the diverse employees they have today. This requires an organization to have a culture of inclusion, mutual respect and collaboration so that as women come on board, their voice is heard and their input is valued.

At the same time, we challenge our clients' assumptions about the requirements that candidates need to have in order to be considered for open positions. By focusing on leadership attributes over traditional job titles, companies are able to broaden the pool of available talent, often increasing not only demographic diversity, but also diversity background, experience and skill set.

While we have found these practices to work to great success, we recognize that they are not the only actions companies can take to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. 

What are you doing in your organization that has given you positive results?