In connection with an update on the progress of its Fearless Girl campaign, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) announced that it will begin in 2020 voting against all Nom/Gov Committee members of US, UK and Australian portfolio company boards that don't have at least one woman and haven't engaged in "successful dialogue" with SSGA on this topic for three consecutive years.
Since the campaign began in 2017, 215 US companies of 816 total companies targeted by SSGA have added a female director, and an additional 14 have committed to doing so in the near term. As previously reported on here, here and prior, SSGA voted against 512 and 581 companies globally during the 2017 and 2018-to-date proxy seasons, respectively, for failing to take action regarding their board gender diversity. The reported impact of the campaign is a reduction to 16% as of June 2018 (18% according to FactSet as of September 19th) from 24% at the end of 2016 of Russell 3000 boards that lack a female director.