Just a few years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for board recruiters to hear a refrain along the lines of “We only want to see a slate of female candidates.” But as those requests faded, so did something else: women on boards.
The latest data shows that the emphasis on female directors seems to be vanishing. According to data from Equilar, less than 25% of new directors who joined Russell 3000 company boards in the third quarter were women —the lowest percentage ever recorded by the firm. What’s more, only 6% of those boards are at least 50% female.
Many boards say they are simply shifting their focus to hiring the best director they can find, regardless of gender and race, and that the current makeup could change. But others peg the decline to the current environment of uncertainty, which has forced companies to shift to directors with CEO experience. That, says Tierney Remick, co-leader of Korn Ferry’s Board and CEO Services practice, narrows the pool of candidates. After all, only 11% of Fortune 500 companies, and 9% of Russell 3000 companies, are led by women. “Instead of saying ‘I want an all-female slate,’ boards are saying ‘I want the best candidate for the job,’” Remick says.
At the same time, many companies haven’t invested in developing a diverse pipeline of next-generation leaders with dedicated P&L experience; instead, they’ve tended to focus on immediate results. “If companies haven’t been developing a leadership pipeline of multidimensional players, then that leads to a very narrow pipeline for the boardroom,” says Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair of Korn Ferry’s Board and CEO Services practice.
To be sure, some regions in the world have taken measures to promote more gender diversity on boards. The European Union’s 2022 directive, for example, mandates EU-listed companies to appoint women to at least 40% of non-executive director positions, or 33% of all director positions, by the end of June 2026. And in the UK, “comply or explain” disclosures require listed companies that don’t have a minimum of 40% of women on their board to explain why.
The push to recruit a more diverse slate of leaders and board members started in earnest in the 2010s. But in recent years, companies have backed off of diversity initiatives and leadership development programs; their rationale, Stevenson says, has been that leaders aren’t going to stay at their current firm, so why invest in them? This approach is now affecting recruitment for both the C-suite and the boardroom.
Of course, some companies are bucking the trend. James Stark, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Financial Officers and Industrials practices, says nearly all his clients “continue to focus on improving diversity in the CFO function,” which is another quality boards prefer. What’s more, several large healthcare and retail company CEOs are working to make next-generation leaders their legacy, akin to how General Electric made itself a CEO development powerhouse back in the day.
While getting more female candidates on boards won’t ultimately be an overnight fix, experts say boards can work to access talent in broader ways in the near term. In practice, what that looks like is ditching assumptions that, say, a large-cap company executive can only sit on a large-cap company board, Remick says. “Talent is increasingly mobile, and boards need to look beyond traditional recruiting avenues,” she notes. Companies can also create peer pressure around revamping leadership development with the understanding that even if those leaders leave, it’s good for business in general to have more qualified executives out in the world, Stevenson says.
It also means boards need to remain cognizant of the need for diverse thinking and perspectives, “which can leave an all-male board lacking in many respects,” says Joe Griesedieck, a vice chairman at Korn Ferry. “P&L leadership is important, but there are going to be multiple priorities for boards in the future that will require broader knowledge.”
Learn more about Korn Ferry’s approach to board recruitment.
