Women are making big strides in the workforce in 2020, yet they face big challenges going forward. A U.S. Labor Department’s report in December showed that women make up the majority of the workforce at 50.04%. Yet, even with the mass number of women in the workforce, the percentage of executive-level roles held by women remains relatively low. Only 6% of the Fortune 500 have women as CEOs and only 2% or 60 of the Russell 3000 companies (the 3,000 largest companies domiciled in the U.S. and U.S. territories) have a board made up of at least 50% women according to Equilar.
Nobody would argue that those percentages aren’t low, but they are up from what it was just a few years ago. Change, although slow, is happening as reflected in the increase seen for the past nine consecutive quarters in the Equilar Gender Diversity Index (GDI), a quarterly update of female directors in the Russell 3000. Additionally, according to the Women in Workplace 2019 report by McKinsey & Company and Lean In, more companies have higher numbers of female C-level executives than in previous years.
Though the numbers are improving, the question remains, how do we help our organizations create a culture of inclusion and diversity.