More Women, Better Business

The evidence continues to mount: companies with more women on boards and in top positions see higher revenue and better results overall.

Catalyst was among the first to break the news a few years back, when a four-year study found “stronger-than-average performance at companies with three or more women board directors.” Wall Street Journal and others recently noted this theory continues to hold true.

“There’s plenty of evidence that companies simply perform better with more women and minorities on board,” Accenture’s CMO Roxanne Taylor tells PINK. She adds that female managers tend to focus on long-terms goals, use more caution in decision-making and continually operate with flexibility.

Taylor says building, cultivating and maintaining a diverse workforce is one of the biggest challenges companies face today. “Diverse perspectives,” she explains, “lead to better problem solving.”

Though the benefits have been proven, most companies still fail to promote as many women as men to leadership roles. Of the Fortune 500, the number of female chief executives went down from 15 in 2010 to 11 this year.

MSN Money highlights high-performing women CEOs like Yahoo’s Carol Bartz, who helped boost the company’s shares significantly, and Tamara Lundgreen of Schnitzer Steel, who reportedly “welcomed the challenge of operating a company in a male-dominated industry.”

Bonus PINK Link: Meet Accenture CMO Roxanne Taylor in PINK’s exclusive Top Woman Profile.

By Caroline Cox

“Action is the antidote to despair.” Joan Baez