• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026

2

Current price of silver as of Monday, June 15, 2026

3

Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup

1

Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026

2

Current price of silver as of Monday, June 15, 2026

3

Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup
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
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

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
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

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
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • 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
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest from the Magazine

REE Corp. chair Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh spent 40 years navigating Vietnam’s economy. Here’s what she thinks comes next
MagazineVietnam
REE Corp. chair Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh spent 40 years navigating Vietnam’s economy. Here’s what she thinks comes next
By Nicholas GordonJune 16, 2026
7 hours ago
Vietnam is becoming the hottest tourist hotspot in Southeast Asia—and trying to avoid Thailand’s mistakes
Magazinetourism
Vietnam is becoming the hottest tourist hotspot in Southeast Asia—and trying to avoid Thailand’s mistakes
By Angelica AngJune 16, 2026
7 hours ago
More than manufacturing: Vietnam has hopes to become Asia’s next cultural powerhouse
MagazineMedia
More than manufacturing: Vietnam has hopes to become Asia’s next cultural powerhouse
By Lee WilliamsonJune 16, 2026
7 hours ago
Vietnam’s economy is one of the fastest-growing in the world. Can it make the leap into the ranks of middle-income countries?
MagazineVietnam
Vietnam’s economy is one of the fastest-growing in the world. Can it make the leap into the ranks of middle-income countries?
By Nicholas GordonJune 16, 2026
10 hours ago
The Southeast Asia 500 has a new engine: Vietnam
MagazineSoutheast Asia 500
The Southeast Asia 500 has a new engine: Vietnam
By Andrew StaplesJune 15, 2026
17 hours ago
The $1 billion game that says AI can’t replace human creativity
MagazineGaming
The $1 billion game that says AI can’t replace human creativity
By Kamal AhmedJune 15, 2026
1 day ago

Most Popular

Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 15, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup
Success
Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup
By Preston ForeJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
Big Tech
Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
By Tristan BoveJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of gold as of June 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of June 15, 2026
By Danny BakstJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Meet Gwynne Shotwell, the engineer-turned-COO who runs SpaceX in platform heels and is now worth over $2 billion
Startups & Venture
Meet Gwynne Shotwell, the engineer-turned-COO who runs SpaceX in platform heels and is now worth over $2 billion
By Eva RoytburgJune 15, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 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.