Tracking and analyzing female board participation in the S&P 500

This article was written by Colleen McElroy in Bloomberg News and leverages Bloomberg’s News Automation. The story was assisted by the Global Data department’s James Calixto, Josh Masci, Alicia Ritcey and Content Engineers Alessandra Poblador and Peter Svensson. It first appeared on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Data-driven news automation is a powerful, effective way to monitor and report on changes in the ESG space. This story, part of a monthly series appearing on the Bloomberg Terminal, showcases changes in female representation on boards of companies in the S&P 500. The story is being developed to include added information and will be expanded to other global indices.

Women lost six S&P 500 board seats in May for 28% share of total

Women lost six seats on the boards of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in May, for a 28% share of directorships, according to Bloomberg data.

• 16 companies increased the number of women on their boards

• 23 companies reduced the number of women on their boards, including Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Albemarle Corp.

• The Energy sector led the gain in female board members while Communication Services notched a decline

• The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index returned 4.6% in May, underperforming the MSCI World Index, which returned 4.9%
• The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index is a modified capitalization-weighted index that tracks the financial performance of those companies committed to supporting gender equality through policy development, representation and transparency

S&P 500 Index companies with the highest percentage of female board members:

The analysis is based on data that covers 495 companies in the S&P 500 Index.

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