Women on Corporate Boards

Background

Addressing gender diversity on public company boards

In 2020, Washington became the second state—after California—to address gender diversity on public company boards through state corporate law. This was done via Senate Bill 6037, known as the Women on Corporate Boards Act.

Effective January 1, 2022, the Act requires publicly traded companies headquartered in Washington to review their diversity efforts if women make up less than 25% of their board. These companies must then report to shareholders on the actions they have taken to increase the number of women and other underrepresented groups. This is known as a “comply or explain” approach.

The Data

Before the Act

When the Women’s Commission was established in 2018, we were specifically tasked with identifying strategies to increase the number of women on corporate boards. In 2019, WSWC’s Economic Security and Opportunity Committee and staff conducted research to assess the board makeup of publicly traded companies in Washington. We found: 

• 13 of 73 (17.8%) corporations had 0 women board directors
• 30 of 73 (41%) corporations had less than 20% women board directors
• 4 of 73 (5.4%) corporations had a woman CEO

The Data

After the Act

To ensure compliance with the Women on Corporate Boards act, WSWC conducted research on the top publicly traded companies headquartered in Washington 5 years later. These findings show steady progress in the number of women on corporate boards in 2024 however, we also include important data on the gender diversity of the Executive Teams for each company.

*Nine of the 73 publicly traded companies examined in 2019 were either acquired by another company, went private, or did not have published board information. These companies were excluded from the 2024 study.