---
title: Private companies’ boards still suck at gender diversity
description: Pioneering women across the world are making gains — there just aren’t enough of them being invited to the table.
---

[Hustle News ](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news)

# [Private companies’ boards still suck at gender diversity](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/private-companies-boards-still-suck-at-gender-diversity)

 Written by [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/ben-berkley) | Apr 4, 2023 11:25:52 PM

Rip that “Slow progress is still progress” inspirational poster right off the wall.

Its ever-optimistic worldview is not well supported by the latest [report](https://news.crunchbase.com/diversity/2022-gender-study-private-boards/) tracking gender diversity on corporate boards, produced by Crunchbase and Him For Her.

Overall, women hold [more](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/01/13/women-now-hold-more-jobs-than-men/?sh=7df82698f8ac) jobs than men, representing 50%+ of the US workforce. Yet this annual study of 667 private US companies — representing ~$200B in funding and 265k+ employees — shows that men still hold 91% of executive board seats.

#### **Tech leads the way in not leading the way**

The only “good” news for the tech sector here is that everyone else is still awful, too.

- Life sciences outpaced tech, but while 75% of life science boards have at least one woman (compared to tech’s 61%), their overall numbers remain atrocious — just 19% of directors are women, and only 5% women of color.
- Of all surveyed companies, 32% of boards have no women whatsoever; 76% of them don’t have a single woman of color.

A reason for this imbalance, per the study’s authors: an overreliance on execs’ personal networks to source board candidates.

- Their proposed solution: increasing the number of independent board seats — women fill a comparatively higher share of those roles.

#### **For one low-bar positive…**

…this survey saw a first: There are finally more women of color on boards than men named “Dave” or “David.” Cool.

- And yes, the aforementioned 32% of companies without women in their boardrooms is rotten, but that number *does* mark a YoY improvement of 7 percentage points.

**The most baffling part:** It’s just plain good business to have a more diverse board. Per the study, companies with at least one female board member raised 16% more money than their all-male counterparts.

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/private-companies-boards-still-suck-at-gender-diversity)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Ben Berkley"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:28:12.898Z",
  "datePublished" : "2023-04-04T23:25:52Z",
  "headline" : "Private companies’ boards still suck at gender diversity",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 1252,
    "url" : "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1814532930-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesApril203202023Gender-Diversity.webp",
    "width" : 1200
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/private-companies-boards-still-suck-at-gender-diversity",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Hustle News"
  }
}
```