Continued Focus On Diversifying The Boardroom

Like the preceding year, 2021 was full of unparalleled challenges for corporate directors, including new COVID-19 variants, supply chain disruptions, increased competition for talent and inflation. In this atmosphere, investors and other stakeholders remained focused on driving companies to increase the gender and racial/ethnic diversity of their boards, which has been shown to benefit companies in numerous ways. Recent data shows that while some progress has been made, there is much room for improvement. Boards should expect pressure from investors to demonstrate sustained improvement in board diversity.

The 2021 U.S. Spencer Stewart Board Index found that directors from historically underrepresented groups accounted for 72 percent of all new directors at S&P 500 companies, up from 59 percent in 2020. Female representation increased to 30 percent of all S&P 500 directors. Despite the record number of new directors from historically underrepresented groups, the