Russell 3000
Looking beyond the top 500 lists, the Russell 3000 covers a broader view of companies listed on the stock market than do other indexes. By measuring total market capitalization, it delivers a comprehensive view of the largest public companies incorporated in the United States, covering approximately 98% of tradable stocks. In this index too, women are increasing their share of the CEO position overall. The Russell 3000 index contains 3,000 publicly traded U.S. companies of the U.S. equity market.
In 2019, women made up 5.2% of CEOs in Russell 3000 companies. As of January 2021, the number has increased to 5.6%. Despite the relative increase, there remains room for improvement.
“According to the Equilar Gender Diversity Index, 24.3 percent of all board seats in the Russell 3000 are occupied by women as of Q1 this year, up from about 15 percent at the time the index first began tracking this data at the end of 2016.”
“According to the index, the number of boards without women dropped below 5 percent for the first time. At the end of Q1 2021, only 144 companies, or 4.9 percent of the Russell 3000, had all male boards. 34 companies that were previously all male added a woman in the last quarter.”
