Recruiting Women for the Board of Directors

More companies are looking for talented people to add as a board member to shape their company. The same companies are favoring board member candidates with experience as CEO’s or chief financial officers. In a recent Wall Street Journal article “…about 45% of female directors and 54% of minority directors boasted such backgrounds – compared with 67% of men and 65% of white directors.”

The move to add diversity to the board room is slow. Recruiting a female board member candidate can be challenging when looking primarily at a narrow set of criteria. “The number of sitting directors who are women has not increased at such a rapid rate as the number of nominees” according to a recent Fortune magazine article about gender diversity. In a recent report by the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) the “number of females among new board nominees at the largest US companies has been steadily climbing in recent years.”

Recruiting women to be board members is rising. Almost 30% of all board nominees for S&P 500 companies have been women. Relevant experience within the industry, board room experience and leadership are the top qualifications for the board of directors role. Board rooms should be more open-minded in defining the parameters for candidates. Some industries are farther behind the national average like technology and energy companies.

Recruiting women to the board room is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Find out more about how private and family owned companies are discovering the value of board diversity by calling Cardinal Board Services at or click here.