• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
MagazineMost Powerful Women

GM’s Board Will Have More Women Than Men. It’s Not the Only One

Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 20, 2019, 6:30 AM ET

Women will make up more than half of GM’s board next month after two male directors retire, leaving six female directors, including chair Mary Barra, to five men.

That’s a big milestone for one of the Fortune 500‘s biggest companies, but GM isn’t alone. Five others—Bed, Bath & Beyond, Casey’s General Stores, Viacom, CBS, and Omnicom Group—have boards of directors with more women than men. Another six—Ascena Retail Group, Best Buy, Navient, Progressive Corporation, Williams-Sonoma, and Ulta Beauty—are at the 50% threshold exactly. More than two-dozen are close to it, above the 40% mark.

Some of these companies—like CBS, with its five men and six women, and Wynn Resorts, with five men and four women—have #MeToo upheavals, following the ousters of Les Moonves at CBS and Steve Wynn at Wynn Resorts, to thank for their newly gender-diverse slates of directors. Others, like Michele Buck’s Hershey Company and Jill Soltau’s J. C. Penney, both with six men and five women, have been proactive in diversifying the gender makeup of their boards. Kellogg, Alaska Air, Macy’s, and the TJX Companies are also near the top of the list.

Among the companies on the Fortune 500, there is some overlap between the women serving on these boards. Seven women serve on four Fortune 500 boards and 34 women serve on three—numbers that show how progress on board gender diversity can sometimes reflect the same small pool of women being tapped for more slots, rather than more women being given opportunities.

The progress companies are making in diversifying their boards by gender is also helping companies get more women into the CEO role, as female board members influence executive hiring decisions, experts say. This year’s Fortune 500 came with an all-time record for the number of women leading companies on the list—33, just barely beating the prior record of 32 from two years ago.

Yet in 2018, women still held only 22.5% of Fortune 500 board seats, according to the Alliance for Board Diversity and Deloitte; minority women held only 4.6% of Fortune 500 board seats. (Caucasian men held 66%.) Despite the small group of Fortune 500 companies where women outnumber men in directorships, more than three-dozen companies still have only one or zero women in their boardrooms.

A version of this article appears in the June 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “General Motors Flips the Ratio.”

More must-read stories from Fortune:

—The 2019 Fortune 500 list demonstrates the prize of size

—The Fortune 500 has more female CEOs than ever before

—Why the giants among this year’s Fortune 500 should intimidate you

—It’s all clicking for Wayfair, a Fortune 500 newcomer

—The 2019 Fortune 500 CEO Survey results are in

Keep up with the world’s most powerful women with Fortune‘s Broadsheet newsletter.

About the Author
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest from the Magazine

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest from the Magazine

MagazineIPOs
IPO boom times are back, with SpaceX and OpenAI on investors’ 2026 wish list. But be careful what you buy
By Jeff John RobertsJanuary 15, 2026
20 hours ago
MagazineNetflix
Netflix’s $82.7 billion rags-to-riches story: How the DVD-by-mail company swallowed Hollywood
By Natalie JarveyJanuary 10, 2026
6 days ago
MagazineCustomer Experience
Survey overload: Companies are inundating customers with endless surveys—and getting worse insights
By Phil WahbaDecember 28, 2025
19 days ago
MagazineData centers
At the edges of the AI data center boom, rural America is up against Silicon Valley billions
By Sharon GoldmanDecember 27, 2025
20 days ago
MagazineWarren Buffett
Warren Buffett: Business titan and cover star
By Indrani SenDecember 7, 2025
1 month ago
MagazineMarkets
Why an AI bubble could mean chaos for stock markets—and how smart investors are protecting their portfolios
By Alyson ShontellDecember 3, 2025
1 month ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Peter Thiel makes his biggest donation in years to help defeat California’s billionaire wealth tax
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 14, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Europe
Americans have been quietly plundering Greenland for over 100 years, since a Navy officer chipped fragments off the Cape York iron meteorite
By Paul Bierman and The ConversationJanuary 14, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Health
The head of marketing at Slate posted on LinkedIn requesting cleaning services as a benefit at her company. The next day, HR answered her call
By Sydney LakeJanuary 15, 2026
23 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Despite a $45 million net worth, Big Bang Theory star still works tough, 16-hour days—he repeats one mantra when overwhelmed
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJanuary 15, 2026
22 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
California's wealth tax doesn't fix the real problem: Cash-poor billionaires who borrow money, tax-free, to live on
By Nick LichtenbergJanuary 14, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Politics
One year after Bill Gates surprised with the choice to close his foundation by 2045, he's cutting staff jobs
By Stephanie Beasley and The Associated PressJanuary 14, 2026
1 day ago

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.