Closing The Gender Gap: Why We Need To Make Space For Women At The Table

First things first: The current underrepresentation of women in top leadership positions isn’t due to a lack of qualified candidates. In fact, women in the U.S. currently hold more jobs than men, representing over 50 percent of the workforce. There are also more college-educated women than men in the labor force — suggesting that there are actually more qualified female candidates for leadership roles than there are males.  

Yet, men still hold 93 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 1000 companies. Private companies aren’t much better, with men holding 91 percent of executive board seats. Shockingly, nearly a third of private companies don’t have any women on their boards at all, while an alarming three-quarters of private company boards don’t include a single woman of color. Furthermore, less than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs identify as LGBTQ+. 

Even in the tech industry, which is known for its innovation, only 13 out of every 100 board members are women and a mere three of those are women of color. These statistics clearly show the barriers that women face in reaching leadership positions and underscore the wider diversity issue across corporate America. 

The nonprofit sector, however, provides a glimmer of hope. Nonprofit CEOs are more likely to be women than men (74% vs 26%), and women hold more seats on nonprofit boards than men (53% vs 47%). Nonprofits are also more racially diverse than other companies, with people of color representing 13 percent of nonprofit CEOs and 22 percent of board members. Despite these achievements, nonprofit organizations still fall short of fully representing the demographics of the communities they serve. Additionally, the statistics reveal that only 10 percent of CEOs in this sector identify as LGBTQ+, and only five percent have a disability.