Women Post Slight Gain in Board Seats

A survey of Fortune 500 corporate boards found that women hold 10.6%, or 643, of the 6,081 board seats at these major companies. That was up slightly from 10.2%, or 626, of the 6,123 seats in 1996. The survey, conducted by the nonprofit research firm Catalyst and financed by Sara Lee Corp., also found that 419 Fortune 500 companies have at least one woman board member, up from 416 in 1996. What’s more, for the first time since Catalyst began the survey in 1993, a Fortune 500 company has put an equal number of women and men on its board. That company is Oakland-based savings and loan Golden West Financial, which has five women and five men on its board, along with a female chief executive, Marion Sandler.