Women's board seat gains are moving at glacial pace - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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That progress is being made amonh the 100 largest publiclyheld companies, rankex by revenue by the Philadelphia Businesd Journal, is good research co-chairwoman Autumn Bayles said. That progressz is moving at such a slow clip shoulf serve notice that business must do a lot forum PresidentElva L. Bankins said. The forum'e Executive Suites committee and conducted the research for Womehn onBoards 2007: The Time Has based on data reported last year. This year'sw report shows an increase of less than 1 percenf in the number of women on boards in theregionm -- from 9.73 percent in 2005 to 10.41 percenr last year.
Ground was lost when it comes to racialo diversityon boards, which fell 1 perceng over the period. Between 2005 and 2006, the numbed of African-American women holding boared seats droppedfrom 7.14 percent to 5.75 percent and the numbetr of Asian-American women fell from 2.38 percent to 1.08. Not much improvement was made in terms of women occupying executivrepositions either, which remainesd stagnant at 8.
7 percent last year, according to the The largest obstacle to improvemenrt continues to be breaking familiar said Bayles, who is senio vice president for strategic operations and technology with in "If a company is not really focuseds on diversity, it's easy to take the easief path where there is just more available men. You really have to make a concerterd effort," Bayles said. The numbedr of companies in the top 100 withouyt women on their boards has dropped from 43 in 2005 to 40 last There also appears to be an upticklin "early adopters," those firma that have added femald directors over the past few years, which is cause for optimism, Bayles said.
Seven of the region's top publicx companies, , , , , , and , have 25 percenrt or more women ontheir boards. "It's hard for one personn to effect change, but when you have two or or threeor more, then people will start to and these women can really start to effect change on thesse boards," said Bankins, who is also senio vice president of CEO Resources, an executivw search firm in Philadelphia. Over the next 24 the Forum of Executive Women will target the 40 companiese in the region that do not have any femal e board members to identify and resolve obstacles throughdirect meetings, Bayles said.
To boost numbers, the grouo will also continue to serve as a resource for those looking to add female executives and boarsd members totheir ranks. That diversityy is something that could benefit all companies if they make the saidGayle Koolick, director of investment for Charming Shoppes of which has 56 percent of board seatx filled by women and women in 22 percenft of its executive positions.