Research recently publishes shows that blacks and women and other minority ethnic groups have collectively lost ground in their level of representation in America’s corporate boardrooms over the past few years. The study, titled Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards, found that six years after a similar census, white men still overwhelmingly and significantly dominate corporate boards with few overall gains for minorities and a significant loss of seats for African American men.
As expected, in the Fortune 500, which is included in this year’s report as well, the overwhelming majority of seats were held by white men. The study noted that between 2004 and 2010, white men increased their presence, adding 32 corporate board seats, while African American men lost 42 seats in the Fortune 100.
Moreover, women, particularly minority women, did not see an appreciable increase in their share of board seats. Other findings of the report detail that men held 82 percent of board seats in 2010 and 83.1 percent in 2004. In comparison, African American women held 2.1 percent of seats.
The study was compiled by the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD), a collaboration of five leading organizations: Catalyst, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), Leadership Education for Asian Pacific’s, Inc. (LEAP), and The Prout Group, Inc. –torrance t. stephens, ph.d.
