Over a quarter (27%) of all respondents to the recently-released 2016 Society/Deloitte Board Practices Report increased the number of female directors serving on their boards over the past year, with the Nonfinancial Services sector and large-cap companies specifically showing the greatest progress (30% and 31%, respectively). Overall, 32% of boards have two women and almost 30% have three (40% for large-caps); however, 41% of small-caps have no women on their boards, compared to just 8% and 2% of mid-caps and large-caps, respectively.
Comparing these results with board gender diversity progress among the S&P 500, Equilar reports that the Services and Tech sectors outperformed the S&P 500 on their board gender diversity progress in 2016, with 31.2% (Services) and 29.2% (Technology) of new directors being female - compared to 25.5% (137 new female directors in 2016) for the S&P 500 (538 total new directors in 2016). Although appearing to make up for lost ground, the Tech sector still ranks third from the bottom in its board gender diversity among the S&P 500 at 21%, with Industrial Goods at 19.6% and Basic Materials ranking lowest at 18.4%, as depicted here:
Overall, however, the 2016 data appear to show concerted efforts to make meaningful progress on the gender diversity front.
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The iconic Board Practices Report - which presents findings from a survey distributed to the Society's public company members in late 2016 - covers trends in over 15 areas of board practices and hot topics including cyber risk, shareholder activism, and board diversity.
See also this Yahoo! Finance article: "Life Sciences Still Lack Gender Diversity At The Top" and numerous additional resources on our Board Diversity topical page.
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