More women are leading corporate America — and their companies are performing better

Hester has seen it all... Hester Ford is the oldest living person in America. A lot has changed during her 115 years of life, including how women are shaping society. When Hester was born in 1905, American women were 15 years away from getting the right to vote in elections. Now, women are also voting on the boards of all of America’s largest corporations. Since Katharine Graham became the first woman named CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 1972, corporate diversity has increased — but there’s still a long way to go to reach gender parity:

• All S&P 500 boards include at least one woman. In January, women gained 22 more S&P board seats, the biggest jump in nearly two years.
• But men still make up more than 70% of all S&P board seats — and over 90% of all S&P 500 CEOs. While the number of female Fortune 500 CEOs hit a record in November, women still make up only 40 (out of... 500).

Profits and performance... Diverse representation is key to achieving equal opportunity, but is also correlated to financial benefits. Many studies indicate that companies with more gender diversity perform better.

• Profits: When women are well represented in leadership, companies are 25% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability.
• Stocks: Shares of companies with female CEOs outperformed those of companies led by men by an average of 20% over two years — and have outperformed them almost every year since 2010.

Pushing for change... from the top down. Governments and corporations are making moves to improve corporate gender diversity. California requires all public companies to have at least one female board director. Companies like Starbucks, Chipotle, and McDonald's have tied exec pay to diversity goals. The Nasdaq is pushing for SEC approval to implement a board diversity rule for the ~3K companies listed on its exchange.