December 2021 Report Summary

The Percentage of Women Joining Boards of Public Companies Reaches a High of 45.8% With 70% of These Being First-Time Appointments, Decemeber 2021 Report Shows In December 2021 the percentage of women appointed to the board of U.S. public companies reached an all-time high! Public companies appointed 179 women to board and 212 men to their boards. This means women comprised 45.8% of all new public board appointments! This high mark builds off an average 12-month trend where the average percentage of women appointed to the boards of public companies is 43%. In December, we’ve also seen the most diversity on public boards since we’ve started tracking this data. While only 47 of the newly appointed female Board members (26.2% of new women appointments) chose to self-disclose their race, we continue to see increased diversification within this set. In December, we see Asian/Pacific Islander women take the lead in board appointments with 20 women being appointed to public boards, making up 42.5% of the 47 women. They are closely followed by 14 Black/African American women, 9 Hispanic women, 2 Middle Eastern / North African women, 1 Indigenous woman, and 1 multi-Racial woman. Buzzfeed, Inc., Airbnb, Inc., and Skechers U.S.A., Inc. are some of the companies that appointed this phenomenal group of diverse women to their boards. Of the 179 women appointed the boards of public companies, 124 (70%) were first time board appointments, and this percentage is remarkable. Thus, the trend to build the pipeline and number of first-time female board directors continues to rise. In December, Healthcare companies led the way in the appointment of women followed by Real Estate companies and Financial Services; with women appointed filling 30.1% of board seats at healthcare companies. In the Financial Services sector, we see strides being made by women at companies like Hennessy Advisors, Inc. and Heritage Global Inc. Since we started publishing this monthly report in October 2020, we find a consistent trend in increasing the number of women board appointments as well as more diverse and first-time board appointments. The trend of over 40% of appointments being women is met with our call to diversify and self-disclose, and also to build out the pipeline of women joining the boards of public and private companies. Equilar and WBC are tracking and analyzing the growth and rotation of board seats on public companies 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 women board members are present and how many of the overall board seats are held by women. Please, join us in celebrating, tracking, analyzing, and promoting women serving on corporate boards.