From: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston

Corporate America is making progress in adding more women to their boards of directors — women now hold 18.8 percent of board seats on 842 companies tracked by 2020 Women on Boards.
That’s up from 17.7 percent last year, and 14.6 percent way back in 2011.
Women hold 18.8 percent of board seats on companies tracked by the Gender Diversity Index, up from 17.7 percent a year ago.

“I believe we will reach our goal of 20 percent or greater women on boards by the year 2020, but there is still much work to be done,” said Stephanie Sonnabend, co-founder and chair of 2020 Women On Boards.
The advocacy group created the Gender Diversity Index to track the progress companies are making in bringing more women into the boardroom. It used the Fortune 1000 list from 2010 as a baseline for comparison. That number is down to 842 this year due to sales, mergers, bankruptcies and other variables.

Diversity is good for a company’s bottom line, the group contends.
“Our current research consistently shows that companies with gender diversity on their boards are more sustainable,” said Malli Gero, president and co-founder of 2020 Women on Boards. “These findings support the fact that having women in leadership roles and on company boards makes good business sense.”
The index found that women hold at least 20 percent of board seats on 45 percent of the companies on the Gender Diversity Index. Leading sectors for female board members include consumer products, financial services, health care, real estate and utilities.

Larger companies have been adding female board members in greater numbers than smaller companies, the index found. The best states for female board members are Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Washington.
Only 9 percent of companies on the index have no women board members. That’s down from 18 percent in 2011. The worst states for female board members are Nevada, Kentucky, Colorado, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Virginia.