December 2020 Report Summary

As we close out 2020 and reflect on the challenges we faced and opportunities 2021 brings, the Women Business Collaborative (WBC) celebrates good news from the private sector: the number of women and diverse women appointed to board of public companies continues to increase. This upward trend gives us hope, even at the end of a challenging year. The private sector is paying attention to the calls for diverse leadership for boards to look more like the composition of the population, communities, customers and partners.

In December 2020, public companies appointed 107 women to Boards of public companies as compared to 175 men. Women comprised 37.8% of overall board appointments. This reflects an upward trend in the 4th quarter of 2020 with women comprising on average 41% of appointees.

In December, 28 women self-identified as women of color with 13 identifying as African American.

The trends appointments of diverse women continue to be positive. In December, 28 of the women appointed identified as women of color with women identifying as African American leading the way with 13 seats. Nine of these African American women are first time board members which means the pool of women holding board seats of public companies is growing. This is exactly what the WBC and its partners and champions are calling for – parity in leadership positions on boards.

During 2020 the trend toward parity was positive. Women gained a net of 1,055 seats on board of public companies and replaced 115 seats previously held by men. Overall, women gained 2.3% points of seats on boards of public companies as shown in this figure:

	Male	Female
As of 12/31/19	80.8%	19.2%
As of 12/31/20	78.5%	21.5%

12.5% of all 2020 newly appointed directors self-identified as people of color.
Directors identifying as people of color comprised 12.5% of all the appointments in 2020. As this information is self-reported, it is important to note that the percentage of people of color appointed to public boards could be higher.

	Asian / Pacific Islander	Black / African American	Hispanic / Latino	Middle Eastern / North African	Multi-racial
Male	1.6%	3.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%
Female	1.7%	3.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
Total	3.4%	7.1%	1.6%	0.3%	0.2%

The overall trends across companies shows an increase in both the number of women and people of color appointed to boards of public companies. In December, healthcare companies led the way with the appointment of 34 women, closely followed by the financial services industry. This reflects the 4th quarter trend of the healthcare and technology sectors leading the way.

Equilar and WBC are tracking and analyzing the growth and rotation of board seats and also the growth of the 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.