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// By Diane Yoo
Making Seats for Female Board Members Earlier this year, global HR giant Korn Ferry took note of what it called a “curious paradox,” writing: “Technology companies are some of the most innovative businesses in terms of strategies, products and services, but are among the least progressive when it comes to the number of women serving on their boards of directors.”
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ccording to the firm’s research, less than 15 percent of the 1,000 or so corporate directors serving the country’s top 100 tech companies are women — far less than the 20 percent representing large companies overall. Moreover, 16 of the top 100 tech companies’ boards had no women members at all. Perhaps even more stunning is the underrepresentation of minorities on large corporate boards. A study by Institutional Shareholder Services, a company that advises large shareholders on corporate governance, found that just 1.5% of the 20,000 directors of the country’s 1,000 largest companies are black women. And the pace of change has been glacial, at best. From 2015-2020, the tech industry increased its share of board members who are underrepresented minorities by just 3.9%, a bit better than other industries, but still far short of what would be needed to make corporate governance truly diverse in our lifetimes.
As a minority woman, entrepreneur, and investor in Silicon Valley startups, I am often the only woman at the table. I have called out the toxic culture that prevents women from leaning in, or even being considered for a high-level position, many times. I’m concerned that the pandemic, which placed unique
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strains on working women and caused many to leave the workforce temporarily, will be used as an excuse to maintain the status quo. Change needs to accelerate, not stop, and men in particular must call out the double standard that we women face. This double-standard, expressed by so many euphemistic roadblocks that only women seem to hear — “show us proof”; “build a network and come back to us”; “you need more traction” and many others — has created huge discrepancies in the percentage of women (especially minority women) executives and entrepreneurs, the twin pools from which board members are culled from. Last week, Sheryl Sandberg of Meta Networks (formerly Facebook) quit the company after twelve years, apparently because she was feeling burned out. Sandberg proved that women could go toe-to-toe with the biggest empire builders in tech, while also becoming a best-selling author and role model for millions. It is my goal and the women I partner with to expand the room and opportunity for legacies such as this. As a tech venture capitalist, I seek out women founders, but men need to join me in this search. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t enough women already at the highest levels needed to pull the rest up without help from our male counterparts. This is
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