Although women make up a lot of the workforce, the same doesn’t hold true in corporate boardrooms.
The Fortune 500 is a list compiled by Fortune magazine that lists the top 500 U.S. based companies as measured by gross revenue. The list is widely regarded as the 500 most powerful companies that define American business. Exxon Mobil, Walmart, General Electric, and Chevron have all competed for the top spots on the list in recent years but what does the gender split look like round the boardroom table from some of these companies?
The reasons behind gender ratio within companies is still an area of much debate but what we do know is that among the top ten Fortune 500 companies, women are still underrepresented on corporate boards.
The number of women CEOs has climbed rapidly since 1996, when the US had no female CEOs. By 2010, the number reached 15. These numbers are still insignificant though. Last year’s record of 24 still represents just 5.2 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500 and as of February 2016, the numbers dropped, with only 21 female CEO’s running Fortune 500 companies.
New research makes it increasingly clear that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially. Companies in the top quartile of gender diversity are 15% more likely to financially outperform those in the bottom quartile.
However, the numbers in this table underline the work that still needs to be done when it comes to gender equality, even as the case for greater diversity becomes more enthralling.
Here’s a look at the top 10 companies from the Fortune 500 list:
Author: Chris Rowson is the founder of Ecard Shack, the home of professional high-quality corporate e-cards for business.
For more information, visit https://www.ecardshack.com/blog/ladies-gentlemen-board/
