Women's Power Gap Names Top Ten Massachusetts Companies for Gender Equity Among Executive Leadership

Goal of rankings is to applaud progress, create a race to the top at state's leading public corporations.

BOSTON, April 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Eos Foundation's Women's Power Gap has released a new report, Breaking Through to the Top: Accelerating Women on the Path to the CEO's Office, that ranks Massachusetts' largest public companies on their progress in achieving gender equity among their executive leadership team.

The rankings are based on a rigorous formula that takes into account the company's representation of women as CEOs, CFOs, most highly paid executives, and members of the executive leadership teams.

The top 10 companies in the state are:

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals
• HubSpot
• Blueprint Medicines
• Lantheus Holdings
• Bright Horizons
• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
• Axcelis Technologies
• Charles River Laboratories
• Moderna
• Waters Corporation

"What these firms have in common is an intentional effort to eliminate systemic biases and cultures that stand in the way of equal access and equal opportunity," said Andrea Silbert, President of the Eos Foundation. "While we are still a long way from gender parity, we want to applaud those companies that are making significant progress toward that goal." 

The objective of the Women's Power Gap rankings is to spotlight which firms are doing well and which are lagging. "Most CEOs and Boards feel they are doing everything they can to attract a diverse pool of the best talent. But some are more successful than others: Our rankings signal to companies where they stand in relation to their peers and to create a race to the top," Silbert said.

The Women's Power Gap also ranked companies based on women's representation on boards of directors by looking at gender diversity of the Board Chair, Lead Independent Director, Audit, Compensation, and Nominating & Governance committee chairs, and board membership. The top companies in this category are: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, TJX Companies., Hologic, MKS Instruments, HubSpot, Insulet, American Tower, The Hanover Insurance Group, Blueprint Medicines, and Iron Mountain.

Other key findings in the report include:

• Five companies have at least 50 percent women on their boards: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Bright Horizons, Insulet, Novanta, and TJX Companies.
• Only six (8%) of the CEOs at the top companies are women, even though women account for 20% of "launch" positions, such as chief operating officers, presidents, heads of divisions/regional markets, and heads of sales.
• Women of color remain significantly underrepresented occupying only 4% of CEO roles, 5% of executive leadership team members, and 4% of Named Executive Officers. There are no Hispanic women CEOs.
• The biotechnology sector is leading the way — of the six corporations led by women, three are in biotechnology. Among the top ten companies with the best track record of advancing women, seven are in biotechnology and other medical fields.

About the Women's Power Gap: The goal of the Women's Power Gap (WPG) is to dramatically increase the number of women from diverse backgrounds among chief executive officers and C-suite leaders across all sectors of our economy. We collect and analyze publicly available data and rank companies and institutions on the proportion of their women executives, with a particular focus on women of color. Our reports highlight the barriers to gender and racial equity and promote systemic practices and policies to dismantle them and remove obstacles that all underrepresented groups face.

Contact: Alex Forero
[email protected] 
617.337.8523

SOURCE Eos Foundation