Having Women in the Boardroom Is Good for Business, Study Finds

Companies perform better when they have women in leadership roles, a study of corporations in the U.S., U.K. and India found.

American publicly traded companies with all-male executive boards missed out on $567 billion in 2014, according to a study by global accounting firm Grant Thornton, titled “Women in Business: the Value of Diversity.”

Only 1 in 10 companies analyzed have women board executives. In the U.S., S&P 500 companies committed to diversity outperformed rivals by nearly 2%, the study found.

Francesca Lagerberg, global leader for tax services at Grant Thornton, believes many businesses don’t realize there are pragmatic reasons to pursue diversity. “The research clearly shows what we have been talking about for a while: that diversity leads to better decision-making,” Lagerberg said. “I believe that organizations have not seen a clear business case for change but the work we have done articulates the advantages of diverse boards in a language that businesses will understand.”

In the U.S., boardroom equality is an ongoing issue, as women hold less than a fifth of S&P board seats.