Women in the boardroom

More women are serving on corporate boards over the past year—but only marginally so. The seventh edition of the Deloitte Global Boardroom Program’s Women in the boardroom report, which charts the progress made toward increasing the number of women board directors, reveals that the global average sits at just under 20% (19.7%), an increase of 2.8 percentage points since our last report in 2019. If this rate of change were to continue every two years, we could expect to reach something near parity in 2041. While this is still unacceptably slow, we can find some optimism in the slight acceleration in the pace of change—our last report showed parity being reached by 2052, so we have shaved the timeline by over decade.

This year, we are delighted to present this report in collaboration with The 30% Club, one of the world’s largest and most influential organizations advocating for more women to join the boards of listed companies. Its name reflects its objective that women represent at least 30% of all corporate directors.

“In 2020, the 30% Club Canada achieved its goal of reaching a minimum of 30% women on boards of directors listed on the TSX Composite. The Investor Group played an important role in this success, both individually and collectively. The Investor Group is comprised of over twenty signatories that signed an Investor Statement of Intent in 2017 that aligned their efforts to the 30% Club goal. Moving forward, the 30% Club will encourage its member organizations to aspire to increasing representation of broader diversity on their boards and in their c-suites.”  - Louisa Greco and David Pathe Cochairs, 30% Club Canada

Deloitte is committed to advocating for greater boardroom diversity and taking meaningful action to change the status quo. Member firm CEOs, chairs, and boardroom program leaders—many of whom are contributors to this report—are vocal champions in their respective markets for faster change.

Disclaimer

Women in the Boardroom – 7th edition, is a report produced by our Global Boardroom Program in English only. The global, regional, and country analyses are based on a dataset covering 10,493 companies in 52 countries—more than 176,340 directorships—spanning Asia Pacific, the Americas, and EMEA. The full report is available in English only.