Women Only Represent About a Quarter of Board Seats in Wisconsin

Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 -- 10:01 AM

(By Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) While women make up about half the population, they only represent about a quarter of board seats for Wisconsin's top-50 public corporations, according to a new research report from Milwaukee Women inc.

The report, which was released earlier this month, shows that women have made significant progress since 2003, when the group first began recording representation data. But the report also found disparities in the number of women of color holding corporate board seats.

Women make up 26.3 percent of Wisconsin's top-50 public corporate boards, which exceeds Milwaukee Women inc.'s goal of 25 percent representation by 2025, according to the report. Among the state’s top-50 private companies, women hold almost 20.5 percent of board seats, the report said.

That's higher than the national average of 14 percent. Since 2003, the total number of women in board of director seats has increased from three to 120, while the number of companies with at least four female board members increased from zero to seven, according to the report.

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