Report Compares Women on Boards Around the World

Today the Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI) released the 2010 CWDI Report: Women Board Directors of the Fortune 200 Global Companies. In its third study of where women stand on the boards of the 200 largest companies in the world as ranked by Fortune in 2009, CWDI examines board composition to see if any changes have taken place post-economic crisis.

Boards in the U.S. have made progress. One-fifth of director seats at the largest U.S. companies, according to CWDI, are occupied by women. Though in terms of percentage of large-company director seats held by women, Norway scores best as a result of the government-mandated quota for 40 percent female representation at publicly listed companies.

As of year-end, Japan has the most companies with no women directors: 19. The all-male boards include Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Panasonic, and Toshiba. This is attributed to the fact that in Japan, most board seats go to senior management. Since few women are senior managers in Japan, they have little access to the boardroom. However, Japan has moved to adopt certain Western corporate governance practices, including smaller boards and independent directors. Sony was a pioneer in recruiting outside directors, and currently has two women on its board. Measuring board diversity this way–by percentage of seats held by women–Japan is not worst in the world, actually South Korea comes out last. It has five companies in the top 200 of Fortune’s Global 500 and zero women on those corporate boards.

“Where Women Don’t Rule: Globally”, Fortune,com, 3/26/10; http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/26/where-women-dont-rule-...