Magazine_blue_green

IES
34 ORGANIZATIONS
AUTUMN 2013 STANFORD BUSINESS
BOUNDAR
GENDER
Paths to
Power
Research explores what’s changed
for women on boards of
directors, and what hasn’t.
BY DAVID LARCKER AND
BRIAN TAYAN
THE WORLD TODAY
Percentage of companies with zero, one, two,
or three or more female directors
North America
Western Europe
EEMEA
Latin America
Developed Asia
Emerging Asia
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
3+
2
1
0
Corporations today show great interest in
increasing female representation on their
board of directors, and female director
numbers are rising. Yet women represent
only a fraction of directors at publicly
traded companies around the world. To
better understand this, we surveyed the
companies on the 2012 list of the Fortune
250 to identify their first female director,
the year she joined the board, and her
previous experience. We found that the
first female directors of large public
corporations had diverse backgrounds,
while the mix of professional experience
among female directors today is quite
different, with a strong shift toward a
corporate career path.
Why is female board representation
not higher? In one recent survey,
women cite male-oriented networks
as the number one reason. Men cited a
lack of female executives at the top of
corporations. Δ
THE PIONEERS
First female directors of select
Fortune 250 companies
LEADERS TODAY
The first female director in our
sample was Clara Abbott of
Abbott Laboratories, who was
the wife of founder Wallace
Abbott and served two terms on
the board from 1900 to 1908
and from 1911 to 1924.
80 % 5 % 7 %
Of female directors
today, 80% have
corporate executive
experience, only 7%
have a consulting or
legal background, and
just 5% come from
academia.
41 %
THE PIONEERS
41% of the first
female directors
of select Fortune
250 companies had
significant prior
business or executive
experience.
1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960
1959
1934
1911
PepsiCo
Coca-Cola
Abbott Laboratories
Infographic by Brown Bird Design