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Gender diversity on corporate boards showed signs of stagnation in the second quarter of 2025. The latest Equilar Gender Diversity Index (GDI) sits at 0.60, where 1.0 represents gender parity between men and women across Russell 3000 boards. This marks only a slight change from Q4 2023, when the GDI measured 0.59. Other than a brief increase to 0.61 last quarter, the needle has held steady at 0.60 since Q1 2024.
Growth toward gender parity was limited this quarter. A key driver of this stagnation was the declining rate at which women are being appointed to boards. The prevalence of new female directors fell to 22.3%, marking the lowest percentage recorded in the study. This also represents a 27.1% decline just from the beginning of the year, when women held 30.6% of newly filled board seats in Q1 2025. This suggests that early gains may have given way to a slower phase of incremental change as companies face fewer board vacancies and a small number of actions that would significantly shift gender composition from quarter to quarter.
The overall prevalence of women serving on boards dropped from 30.1% in Q3 2024 to 30.0% in Q3 2025. While reaching 30% representation was previously viewed as a notable milestone, progress has largely leveled off since that point. Over the last five quarters, the prevalence of women on boards has remained within a narrow band between 30.0% and 30.3%. This could largely be attributed to declining external pressure from when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Nasdaq Rule 5606 in December 2024 which required companies to have diverse board members, or explain why they did not. Since companies are no longer required to meet specific diversity objectives, this falling metric may be a result of the loss in momentum of appointing more female board members.
Furthermore, the number of boards reaching gender parity in the boardroom increased modestly from 171 to 175 over the last quarter. However, this still falls below the 192 boards that achieved parity in Q3 2024. The loss in momentum suggests that reaching parity has become more challenging for companies that have not made significant progress.
The prevalence of female directors serving on multiple boards has also declined. This metric dropped below 24.0% for the first time since Q4 2017, when the percentage was at 23.7%. This quarter, the percentage decreased from 24.0% in the previous quarter to 23.5%. This suggests there may be fewer women being repeatedly selected for board opportunities, which can reflect either a broader pipeline strategy or fewer overall opportunities extended to women.
Several factors may be contributing to the slower progress observed this year. Limited board turnover continues to restrict the number of available seats, while ongoing market conditions may lead boards to prioritize candidates with previous board experience, which can limit changes in board composition. Pipeline dynamics remain an ongoing factor, as women are still underrepresented in senior executive roles that most often feed into board positions. Additionally, companies that have already increased representation in recent years may be experiencing a slowdown in incremental gains when it comes to new appointments and moving beyond thresholds.
Results from upcoming quarters will help determine whether the leveling trend persists or if progress accelerates again in the near term.
About Equilar Gender Diversity Index
The Equilar GDI reflects changes on Russell 3000 boards on a quarterly basis as cited in 8-K filings to the SEC. Most indices that track information about board diversity do so annually or even less frequently, and typically with a smaller sample size, sometimes looking back more than a full year by the time the information is published. The Equilar GDI aims to capture the influence of the increasing calls for diversity from investors and other stakeholders in real time.
The Equilar GDI is powered by Equilar ExecAtlas, a database of more than three million board members and executives. ExecAtlas includes exclusive features that show how board members and companies are connected to each other, as well as the Equilar Diversity Network (EDN), a “registry of registries” of board-ready executives from leading ethnic and gender diversity partnerships, organizations, and publications.
Associate Editor at Equilar
Joyce Chen, Associate Editor at Equilar, authored this post. Equilar Researchers Jeremy Ho, Grace Huang, Gabriel Klewin, Erin Le and Yuiko Shimizu contributed data and analysis. Please contact Amit Batish at abatish@equilar.com.
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