The Missing Pieces Report: A Board Diversity Census of Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards, is the culmination of a multiyear effort organized by the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD)—collaborating with Deloitte for the 2016, 2018, and 2020 censuses—that has examined and chronicled the representation of women and minorities on public company boards of directors across America’s largest companies. Originally organized as a “snapshot” of board diversity, the data accumulated since 2004 has enabled the ABD to report on trends regarding the overall diversity of boards, as well as the relative differences across the equitable rates of representation for women and minorities by gender, race, and ethnicity.
This Missing Pieces Report, 6th edition highlights the progress to-date that has or has not been made in the equitable representation of women and minorities on corporate boards. While there have been a few gains in board representation for some demographic groups, advancement is still very incremental, with goals of achieving proportional representation to the presence of women and minorities in the US population sometimes multiple decades away at current rates of change.
About the Alliance for Board Diversity
Founded in 2004, the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD) is a collaboration of four leadership organizations: Catalyst, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), and LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics). Diversified Search, an executive search firm, is a founding partner of the alliance and serves as an advisor and facilitator. The ABD’s mission is to enhance shareholder value in Fortune 500 companies by promoting inclusion of women and minorities on corporate boards. Learn more about ABD at https://theabd.org/.