Gender equality on boards out of reach until 2038, according to MSCI

LONDON: Data provider MSCI said Wednesday that if current improvements in women’s representation are maintained, gender inequality on boards will not be eliminated until 2038, adding that progress has stalled in the United States as well. rice field.

Data modeled by MSCI shows that if the average growth rate of female board members continues from 2018 to 2022, companies in the data provider’s leading global equity indices will have gender-balanced boards for 15 years. indicates that it does not have

Based on current trajectories, this means that by 2038 women won’t have an average of 50% on the boards of the 2,811 companies that make up MSCI’s All Country World Index (ACWI).

However, this was an improvement from data collected in 2021, which suggested the 50% threshold would not be reached until 2042. ACWI’s.

After a slowdown in the inclusion of women on corporate boards in 2020, the trajectory toward gender equality accelerated in 2022, according to MSCI, with the number of boards filled by women increasing by 1.9% year-on-year.

MSCI attributes the recovery to steady increases in the representation of women on company boards in developed markets outside the US, with US growth stagnating for the third year in a row. says there is.

But globalization still has a long way to go. According to MSCI, in 2022 women will occupy less than a quarter, or 24.5%, of board positions across global indices, compared to 22.6% in 2021.

Additionally, only 163 of the 2,811 companies had female CEOs.

In Qatar none of the 12 members of the ACWI had a female director. In the United States, she was the only company out of 593 that did not have a female director.