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Report

No more excuses

How to ﬁnally shatter the glass ceiling and get more women onto boards.

By Alexander Fleischmann

January 2024

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As we approach the 33rd anniversary of the US Department of Labor’s landmark report, The Glass Ceiling Initiative, the quote from Evan Kemp in the introduction to the original report is as relevant today to some women in business as it was a third of a century ago, according to new research from IMD in cooperation with The Boardroom.

The research was undertaken in two parts:

One, qualitative interviews with 15 executives identifying as female who held or aspired to hold board positions.
Two, an online survey completed by 130 senior women in business. The ﬁndings were that the process of recruitment to company boards is opaque, with more than six in 10 of those surveyed saying that how individuals are elevated to the company’s highest positions is not transparent. And while more than half believe these appointments are based on merit, a third say they are not.

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