Corporate Boards Make Steady But Slow Progress Towards Gender Equality
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Corporate Boards Make Steady But Slow Progress Towards Gender Equality
Thomson Reuters releases findings from latest study on the progress and benefits
of women on corporate boards
LONDON, NEW YORK, October 23, 2014: Thomson Reuters, the world's leading source
of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, released its latest
study on gender diversity in the boardroom, which shows how the presence of
women on corporate boards has continued at a steady, albeit incremental,
increase over the past five fiscal years, and that for the first time, more than
half of corporate boards reported that 10% or more of their board is female. The
report also shows that companies with mixed boards continue to perform
marginally better, on average, compared to a benchmark index, such as the MSCI
World.
The report, 'Climb to the Top - Tracking Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards',
reveals how the progression of women on corporate boards has changed over time,
region and by sector, and whether gender diversity helps drive stock
performance. It also looks at the proportion of companies with processes in
place to drive diversity and equal opportunity. The study can be accessed in
full here. Key findings include:
* Global trends indicate a gradual increase in the percentage of companies
that have women on their boards with 64% of companies reporting women board
members, up from 56% in 2009.
* Only 20% of the companies analyzed report having a board consisting of 20%
or more women (13% in 2008); however more than half (51%) report boards of
10% or more women (40% in 2008).
* From a regional perspective, EMEA has widened its lead in having at least
20% female board members. EMEA has also overtaken the Americas for having at
least 10% of female representation on the board since 2009, whilst companies
in the Asia Pacific region continue to report having the least gender
diverse boards.
* Adoption of policies and processes regarding gender diversity and equal
opportunity has been increasing and is particularly high among companies in
Europe and the Americas. Asia Pacific companies have shown the greatest
increase in the implementation of diversity and equal opportunity processes
over the last five years, but remain well below the levels reported in other
regions.
* Indices made up of companies with mixed boards have low but generally
positive tracking errors to benchmark, e.g., MSCI World Index; in other
words, they outperform their benchmark index. Indices with no women on their
boards had slightly higher tracking errors, indicating potentially more
volatile portfolios and on average underperformed relative to mixed boards.
* By sector, Healthcare, Financial and both Noncyclical and Cyclical Consumer
Goods & Services companies lead in gender-diverse boards.
"Clearly our data shows that there are advantages of having more women on
corporate boards," says André Chanavat, product manager, Environmental, Social &
Governance (ESG) at Thomson Reuters. "Although progress towards gender diversity
on corporate boards is slow, it is indeed moving in the right direction to a
global advantage that allows for increased transparency, performance and overall
effectiveness."
'Climb to the Top - Tracking Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards' analyzes the
level of gender diversity on corporate boards compiled from 4,255 public
companies globally, using data from Thomson Reuters ASSET4 universe which
provides objective and transparent environmental, social and governance (ESG)
information. In addition, it raises the questions of what needs to be done for
companies to hire more women to corporate boards.
This study complements Thomson Reuters "Mining the Metrics of Board Diversity"
analysis from July 2013, which revealed that corporations were doing more to
track the number of women they employ, and that those corporations with more
women at managerial levels appeared to benefit from healthier share prices in
times of market turmoil. Click here for a copy of this earlier report.
Thomson Reuters ASSET4 ESG database provides in-depth environmental, social and
governance information enabling socially responsible investment analysis. The
ESG database contains information on 4,200+ global companies and over 750 data
points covering every aspect of sustainability reporting. For more information,
go to http://thomsonreuters.com/esg-research-data/
Thomson Reuters
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CONTACTS
Lemuel Brewster
PR Director, PR Director - Financial & Risk, Americas
Thomson Reuters
+1 646 223 5147
Lemuel.brewster(at)thomsonreuters.com
Clare Arber
Head of PR, Financial Services Content
Thomson Reuters
+ 44 20 7542 6256
Clare.arber(at)thomsonreuters.com
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Datum: 23.10.2014 - 15:14 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 346500
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