State Street Corp.’s investing group shelved gender diversity targets for company boards amid mounting backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion across corporate America.
Last year, State Street Global Advisors said it expected corporate boards to be comprised of at least 30% women or it may vote against the head of the companies’ nominating committees.
That policy no longer exists in the money manager’s 2025 guidelines for shareholder voting and corporate discussions, according to an update released Friday. The company manages $4.7 trillion.
While characteristics including gender, race and ethnicity are necessary for effective board oversight of a company’s long-term strategy, “we believe nominating committees are best placed to determining the most effective board composition,” State Street said in its policy guidelines.
The changes at State Street are salient given that the asset manager launched the “Fearless Girl” campaign in 2017, prompting large investment firms to vote against directors at companies that lacked women on their boards. State Street unveiled the Fearless Girl statue in New York’s financial district in lower Manhattan in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
State Street spokesman Ed Patterson said in an emailed statement that the company annually reviews its proxy voting and corporate engagement policies to ensure they’re in line with “global protocols and local laws and regulations, guided by our core principles of effective board oversight, disclosure and shareholder protection and a singular focus on value creation.”
BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, also dropped its 30% target for board diversity in its 2025 voting guidelines. It said the majority of S&P 500 companies already have “diverse representation.”
And Vanguard Group said in its 2024 voting guidelines that boards should at a minimum represent diversity of characteristics, including gender, race and ethnicity. That line was removed from its 2025 guidance.
