This October, dozens of women accused Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of gross severe sexual misconduct, which kicked off a wave of similar allegations against dozens of high-profile individuals in various industries. It became part of the #MeToo movement, and one of the defining moments of 2017. On October 24, the Boardlist, together with Qualtrics, released a survey of some 400 board members to gauge their views on gender diversity and sexual misconduct. And the survey revealed that 77% of the directors surveyed had not discussed accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior and/or sexism in the workplace on their respective boards. More importantly, 88% of them had not implemented a plan of action, in light of recent allegations of sexual misconduct, to deal with such an accusation at the board level.
The points arose in context yet again when PwC recently released its 2017 Annual Corporate Directors Survey, which canvased 866 directors from a selection of companies spanning a dozen different industries, and most of which (75%) had annual revenues north of $1 billion. Men respondents outnumbered women by 84% to just 16%, underscoring how gender diversity issues have become a board priority too big to ignore.
