Only 1 of the Philly region’s top 100 companies has a female CEO, and other takeaways from a new report

More women are becoming executives and joining boards at the Philadelphia region’s top companies, but progress remains slow, according to a report released Wednesday by the Forum of Executive Women.

The report, a collaboration between the Philadelphia-area advocacy organization and the accounting and consulting firm PwC, used 2021 data and examined the region’s top 100 public companies by revenue, as listed in the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2022 rankings.

Unlike in previous years, companies made progress in 2021 in every metric the report measured. Fewer companies reported that all their executives and top earners were men.

» READ MORE: Women score gains on Philly corporate boards but remain far from parity

But since half the population is female, the composition of companies falls far behind equitable representation. For example, only one company had a female chief executive officer in 2021 — Susan Hardwick at the utility company American Water, based in Camden. Last year, no female CEOs led the region’s top 100 public companies. The number peaked in 2013 at seven.

Deanna Byrne, named the first female managing partner of PwC’s Philadelphia office in 2017, said in a statement that although companies need to improve, she is “optimistic” momentum will continue in the coming years.

“We are encouraged to see the progress made over the last year in female representation across board members, executive officers, and top earners throughout the Philadelphia region,” she said.

» READ MORE: Halting progress for women on boards, in C-suite in 2020, Forum of Executive Women finds

Wednesday’s report was the 21st to be released by the Forum of Executive Women, which is made up of nearly 600 female leaders throughout the Philadelphia region.

“The forum celebrates that one-third of our region’s largest public companies have boards comprised of at least 30% women and that they have moved the needle in the positive direction on every metric measured in the report,” Katherine Kelton, president of the Forum of Executive Women, said in a statement.

Below are some takeaways from the latest annual report.

In 2013, 33 of the top companies in the Philadelphia region had no women on their boards. In 2021, four companies didn’t have any women on their boards. The number of companies without female board members has decreased every year since 2014.

Women hold 25% of more than 900 board seats. That’s up from 23% in 2020. But women are the chairs of boards at only 5% of companies.

The share of women who were executives in 2021 increased to 19% from 16% in 2020. That year, 40 companies had no female executives. That number was down to 31 in 2021.

“The fact that there are still companies without women leaders is surprising and disappointing, but we’re narrowing those numbers and that’s important,” Colleen Crowley, a partner at PwC, said in the report.

Crowley said she was concerned about the state of the leadership pipeline that could improve these numbers.

“This data doesn’t show us how women in the mid-tier of the pipeline have been affected by COVID-19 challenges, something we may not fully understand for several years,” she said.

More companies are sharing data about their diversity. The ones listed on Nasdaq’s U.S. exchange are now required to publicly share diversity statistics for their boards of directors.

Almost 65% of companies report racial and ethnic diversity data and policies about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the information they share with shareholders, while 17% do not say anything in their proxy statements. The rest report that they have diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, but they have not shared the racial makeup of their boardrooms and workforce.

» READ MORE: The first female recession threatens to wipe out decades of progress for U.S. women (From 2020)

Forty-three companies said all their top earners were men in 2021. That’s down from 54 companies the year before.

Of the region’s top earners, 15% were women in 2021. That’s up from 12% the previous year. It’s the biggest increase since at least 2010.