Women’s Board Representation Slips Below 30% as Momentum Stalls

he share of women on the boards of mid-sized and large public companies dipped below 30% in the first quarter, missing that threshold for the first time since 2024, and down from a peak of 30.4% a year ago.

In all, women held 29.9% of board seats at Russell 3000 Index companies in the first three months of the year. During that period, womengained 138 seats and lost 83, for a net increase of 55 seats. But that was offset by a net gain of 186 board seats for men, according to a study scheduled to be released Tuesday by the group 5050 Women on Boards, in collaboration with data provider Equilar Inc.

The decline comes as President Donald Trump and conservative activists have mounted a concerted effort to end what the president calls “illegal DEI,” programs that would favor one gender or race over another. Women’s gains in the boardroom had already been slowing as companies faced pressure to end programs that offered added support to under-represented groups.

The recent shifts reverse some of the sharp gains women had made on corporate boards after the #MeToo movement in 2017 brought attention to widespread sexual harassment in the workplace. Companies faced pressure from both state regulations and investor groups to add more women to boards. Most of those programs have all either been overturned by courts or withdrawn by investor groups.

The data show that 80 companies among the 2,843 firms in the analysis still have no women on the board and about 13% have only one. About 45% have three or more.