Women on boards demonstrably help a company’s overall performance. \u00a0Here are companies that have no women on their boards: \u00a0Samsung, Nintendo, Nissan and Kia Motors have exactly zero female board members.<\/p>\n
State Farm, Chipotle, Costco, CBS, and even make-up brand Revlon are just a few of the companies with no female executives.<\/p>\n
LedBetter (a nod to fair pay activist Lilly Ledbetter) is tracking gender equality on boards and in the executive ranks of 2,000 big consumer brands.<\/p>\n
The hope is that with this information readily available, consumers can make purchasing decisions that better align with their values, according to cofounder and CEO Iris Kuo.<\/p>\n
“People need to be educated on this topic and understand where their money is going,” said Kuo, who said the idea came from a 2013 interview with Sallie Krawcheck. \u00a0Krawcheck noted that women told her they’d buy differently if they just knew the company’s gender makeup.<\/p>\n
Women hold the vast majority of purchasing power, roughly 80%.<\/p>\n
The data underlines Catalyst’s latest findings\u00a0on the representation of women at S&P 500 companies.<\/p>\n
Women hold just 19.9% of board seats at S&P 500 companies, and only 14% of companies are even approaching gender parity on their boards.<\/p>\n
Gender equality was a hot topic at the first-ever United State of Women Summit on Tuesday. To coincide with the event, the Obama administration, companies and foundations pledged $50 million to support women around the world. That includes 28 companies that signed onto the White House’s Equal Pay Pledge, like Amazon,\u00a0American Airlines,\u00a0L’Oreal, Gap and Staples.<\/p>\n
“We should shop and frequent those companies that are doing the right thing,” said President Barack Obama during a speech at the summit.<\/p>\n
Of the 230 parent companies in LedBetter’s database, only 6% — just 14 — had female CEOs.<\/p>\n
Personal care, apparel and retail are the best industries for women on in leadership roles. H&M’s board is 58% women and 41% of its top leadership are female; Gap’s board is 36% female and its executive team is 57% female.<\/p>\n
Energy and transportation, on the other hand, are the worst industries for gender equity by LedBetter’s measures.<\/p>\n
But gender representation on the board and the executive team don’t always go hand-in-hand.<\/p>\n
Revlon has no female executives but an above average female board, 33%. Mattel, which makes Barbie, similarly has no women on its executive team, but its board is 30% female.<\/p>\n
Women on boards demonstrably help a company’s overall performance. \u00a0Here are companies that have no women on their boards: \u00a0Samsung, Nintendo, Nissan and Kia Motors have exactly zero female board members. State Farm, Chipotle, Costco, CBS, and even make-up brand … Continue reading ![\"Women](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Women-on-Boards-300x227.jpg\")
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