Women’s representation takes back seat on boards

Women’s representation on corporate boards in 2020 saw a noticeable slowdown. The rate of increase is just 0.6 percentage points among the top global listed companies tracked by Morgan Stanley Corporate International (MSCI) since 2009.

“Emerging research has suggested that women are being more impacted by the economic fallout caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has the potential to undo years of progress,” the global investment research firm said.

"If the trend over the past four years continues it may take until 2029 for women to comprise 30 per cent of corporate boards, and until 2045 to reach 50 per cent,” MSCI said.

“In 2020, we saw a noticeable slowdown in the rate of increase for female representation on boards, with a gain of only 0.6 percentage points among constituents of the MSCI ACWI Index, after a jump of 2.1 percentage points last year,” MSCI said.

MSCI ACWI is a stock index that tracks about

3,000 stocks in 49 developed and emerging market countries.

In the case of India, of the 86 companies in the MSCI ACWI Index five companies had no women on their boards.

Female representation on boards in CEO/CFO positions in India was 3.5 per cent compared to 16.6 per cent director seats held by women.

“Though fewer new female directors were added to boards this year than in the past, the number of all-male boards globally continued to decline. Only 17 per cent of constituents of the MSCI ACWI Index have all-male boards in 2020, down from

18.6 per cent last year,” MSCI said.

There were 23 companies in the index with majorityfemale boards in 2020, up by just one from 2019, but still representing 0.8 per cent of companies.

Much of the change came in emerging markets, where the percentage of all-male boards dropped from 34.3 per cent in 2019 to

31.0 per cent in 2020.