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2 Gender-Diversity Trends in the Corporate Boardroom

2 Gender-Diversity Trends in the Corporate Boardroom

Madison Sargis: A few weeks ago, it was reported that all-male boards are officially a thing of the past for the S&P 500.

And while it's great to see such positive headline figures, Morningstar wanted to highlight two trends that paint a less rosy picture about gender diversity within the corporate boardroom.

First, small-cap companies are lagging large caps. Gender diversity for small caps is only where large caps were a decade ago.

Second, the talent pool to fill these board of director positions is not keeping pace. Gender diversity at the board level has been accelerating in recent years, whereas the representation of women on executive teams has remained stagnant.

So while we see that the headline numbers are positive, there's still a lot of room for improvement to maintain and sustain the level of gender diversity that we see in the market.

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About the Author

Madison Sargis

Head of Quantitative Research
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Madison Sargis is director of quantitative research, a unit of Morningstar, Inc. In this role, Sargis leads a team of quantitative researchers, data scientists, and research engineers, whose key objectives are to strengthen the firm's data and research. Her team develops innovative statistical models, such as the Morningstar Quantitative Rating.

Before assuming her current role, she was an associate director of quantitative research. Sargis joined Morningstar in 2014 as a product consultant and then worked as a client-services team lead before joining the quantitative research team in 2016 as an analyst.

Sargis was recognized as one of Fund Action's Rising Stars of the 2018 Mutual Fund Industry Awards and was nominated for Investment Week's International Investment Woman of the Year in 2018.

Sargis holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated cum laude, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she graduated with honors. She also is the recipient of the University of Chicago Booth KPMG Scholarship and Leadership Award.

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