New study compares views and concerns of male and female Board Directors

May 13, 20161 minute read

A 2016 Global Board of Directors Survey, conducted by Spencer Stuart, the WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) Foundation and several academics highlights ways in which individual board members think differently, including whether the director is a man or a woman.

According to the study, as reported by JDSUPRA Business Advisor in a blog written by Cydney Posner, “Female directors reported higher levels of concern about various risks to their companies than male directors, including concerns about activist investors, cybersecurity, enterprise, regulatory and supply chain risk. However, female directors also viewed their companies’ levels of readiness as higher than did their male counterparts.”

Also analyzing the composition of the boards on which study participants served, the study found that the proportion of female directors was highest (20% or more) in the consumer staples, financial services/professional services and consumer discretionary sectors, and lowest in IT/telecom (13%).
In addition to researching male and female differences, the study compared the views of board members depending on whether they served on the board of a public or a private company. Topics surveyed included views on top political issues, the challenge of attracting and retaining talent, and other areas.