White men held less than half the board seats on the top 50 Fortune list for the third straight year — but their numbers are rising

The slight decrease in diversity in corporate boardrooms in 2025 comes as the Trump administration and its allies have pushed to unwind diversity initiatives.

By: Richie Zweigenhaft, Guilford College, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: January 27, 2026

Words: 1,176

Last Updated: 21 hours, 41 minutes ago

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By Richie Zweigenhaft, Guilford College

Historically, corporate board rooms have been mostly white and mostly male. Yet the trend started shifting in the 1970s, in part due to gains from the civil rights era and pro-diversity efforts by activists and business groups.

I have been monitoring the degree of diversity in the corporate and political worlds for decades. One useful diversity metric is the percentage of boardroom members who are not white men.

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