Progress: Half Of All New FTSE Board Members Are Women

At last count, women make up roughly 16 percent of board members at Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. Earlier this year, on the FTSE 100, women commanded a paltry 15 percent. With stats like that, it’s easy to feel discouraged. But a new report shows that women may be gaining ground on boards more rapidly than they seem to be — at least in Great Britain.

Helena Morrissey, CEO of London-based Newton Investment Management and an advocate for gender diversity among corporate boards, told CNBC that nearly half of all new corporate board spots on the FTSE are going to women. (Of course, considering that women made up just 12 percent of FTSE board members in 2010, it seemed there was nowhere to go but up.) This is great news for women, obviously, and encouraging for businesses as well — ample data has shown more gender-diverse boards perform better.

Morrissey, of course, is no stranger to the diversity fight on corporate boards. She’s the founder of the 30 Percent Club, the goal of which is to see (yep) 30 percent of board seats on FTSE companies go to women. Oh, and also, no biggie, she’s the mom to nine kids. Working moms, your hero hath been anointed.

Watch Morrissey’s fascinating segment on CNBC here:

TAGS: 30 percent club | helena morrissey | percentage of female board members

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