Let’s check in on the latest board diversity numbers. As you might expect, it’s not good!
50/50 Women on Boards just put out
its latest report on who’s getting board seats, updated through the second quarter of this year. In Q2, women’s share of Russell 3000 board seats dropped to 29.2% from 30.1% this time last year. That’s the first annual decline in more than a decade.
This is the second notable finding on reversal of board diversity progress from the group this year. At the end of Q1, it determined that women’s board representation
had fallen under 30% for the first time since hitting that milestone in 2024.
Now, the total number of board seats being filled is going up (new appointments rose 4.1%). And yet women got only 22.7% of these seats, down from 29.1% last year. Seat-by-seat, that’s a loss of 102 board positions since last year. Between 2024 and 2025, women gained 47 board seats.
The share of boards with zero women or only one woman inched upward from 40% to 42.4%. We continue to see the difference it makes when a woman is in charge as CEO or chair. Companies with women in those leadership positions were more likely to have gender-balanced boards.
As a reminder, research shows that having a diverse board improves the performance of all directors and enables boards
to better tackle complex decisions.
Of board seats that have been held for 15 years or more, men occupy 88.9%. The organization presents that as an opportunity—a huge swath of board openings soon subject to tenure limits or retirement. But in order to take advantage of that opportunity, we need to right the ship. Right now, we’re seeing the impact of 2025’s attack on DEI—and the lessening of public or peer pressure to develop diverse boards. If companies can get it together by the time their directors start retiring, we have a chance of getting back on track.
Emma Hinchliffeemma.hinchliffe@fortune.comThe Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’
s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. 
