Companies With the Most Women Board Members

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 6:37AM EST · Published Jun 20, 9:45AM EDT

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Companies With the Most Women Board Members — © Thinkstock

Large companies are notorious for the small number of women chief executives and board members they have. Several companies are in a distinct minority because they have bucked the trend. However, the study on which the conclusions about companies with a large percentage of women board members is based is deeply flawed.

According to research firm LedBetter’s examination of 230 brands titled “The Gender Equality Index,” several companies have boards on which over half the members are women. These include H&M Group, 58% of the board that are women, as well as Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent Paris and Stella McCartney, which all have 64% women board members.

Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent Paris and Stella McCartney are part of parent group Kering, which substantial weakens the Ledbetter analysis by its choice of brands that are part of an umbrella corporation with a single board, rather than the brands themselves, which in many cases do not have boards at all. This makes the LedBetter analysis useless.

Next on the list is Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) with 36% of its board members who are women. Following it on the list are Banana Republic and Old Navy, which are part of parent Gap.

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Next is Esty, with a board which is 50% women. This is followed by huge consumer electronics company Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY), which has a board membership which is 36% women. Next are Geek Squad, part of Best Buy, and then Best Buy mobile.

The flaw extends to liquor brands Captain Morgan, Johnnie Walker and Tanqueray, which are part of parent Diageo PLC (NYSE: DEO).

The bottom of the list, based on boards with no women, is similarly flawed. It is made up of several Coty brands, which include NYC NewYorkColor, philosophy and Rimmel. The only legitimate company at the bottom of the list is Samsung.

Methodology: LedBetter is a research group that runs a database and application showcasing the number of women in leadership at the world’s top consumer brands and companies. Its mission is to empower and educate consumers, policymakers, leaders, journalists and others about the companies they support and cover, and to improve the public’s understanding of which companies promote gender equality in leadership and which do not.

Too bad the conclusions are worthless.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.