Gender Parity In the Boardroom Won't Happen On It's Own

You can read the data any way you want.

You can say that the number of women holding board seats globally has grown steadily in the last few years.

Or you can point out that women hold a mere 16.9% of board seats globally.

However you choose to interpret the data, one takeaway is clear: we have not even remotely achieved gender parity when it comes to boards.

Gender quotas are one tactic being tried out by companies and governing bodies. But the pipeline is a big part of the problem.

Women hold a disproportionately low number of CEO positions, too — just 4.4% globally. That C-level role often comes directly before board membership, so before we can increase the number of women on boards, that has to change too.

It’s a complicated equation, but in my work at The Source and Recruit Company I witness that one thing is true and consistent across many companies: they’re committed to figuring out what needs to happen to balance the board gender makeup.