CWCC Women on Colorado Boards Report: Decline in Overall Board Equity

📊 The data is here — and it’s a wake-up call.

DENVER, CO — The Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce (CWCC) released its Women on Colorado Boards Report, offering a comprehensive analysis of women’s representation across the boards of Colorado’s 70 publicly traded companies in 2025.

For the first time in the report’s history, 100% of Colorado’s publicly traded companies now have at least one woman on their board—a landmark achievement that should not go unnoticed. However, the overall percentage of women serving on corporate boards has declined from 29.1% in 2024 to 28.78% in 2025, with 177 women holding 615 board seats statewide.

“This year’s findings are both a milestone and a warning,” said Simone D. Ross, CEO of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce. “The decline in overall representation tells us something urgent: progress is fragile. Women are not being lost because of talent gaps—they are being lost because systems are not holding them in place. If we want different outcomes in our boardrooms, we must build different systems in our workplaces.”

The report places Colorado’s trends within a broader national context, where women hold just 29% of C-suite positions and continue to face systemic barriers in advancement, often described as the “broken rung”—the early-career promotion gap that limits women’s access to senior leadership and, ultimately, board service.

Compounding these challenges, an estimated 455,000 women exited the U.S. workforce between January and August 2025, driven by a convergence of structural pressures, including caregiving responsibilities, childcare affordability, return-to-office mandates, and burnout. These exits disproportionately affect women of color and further constrict the pipeline to corporate leadership.

“The numbers inside this report tell the fuller story, but the headline is this: women are being pushed out of systems before they ever reach the boardroom,” Ross added. “That is not just a workforce issue—it is an economic one. Women are not DEI, they are GDP. And right now, we are losing them.”

Despite these challenges, the report identifies clear examples of leadership.

Several Colorado companies demonstrate that gender parity is both achievable and beneficial, including organizations where women hold nearly half—or more—of board seats. Yet, most companies continue to cluster at minimal representation levels, with the largest share having just two women directors.

CWCC Board Chair Dr. Sandra Jones emphasized that the data should serve as both recognition and a call to action.

“We invite every organization to use this report as a roadmap,” said Jones. “The question is not whether qualified women exist—they do. The question is whether systems are designed to advance them.”

Sector-level analysis shows continued disparities, with consumer cyclical and real estate sectors leading in representation, while communication services, energy, and consumer defensive sectors lag behind.

The CWCC urges business leaders to use the findings as a strategic tool to assess board composition, strengthen leadership pipelines, and implement intentional succession and sponsorship strategies. Research consistently shows that companies with diverse boards outperform peers in innovation, profitability, and long-term resilience.

“Colorado has always been a state that leads,” Ross said. “This is a moment to decide whether we continue to lead—or whether we follow national trends that weaken our competitiveness. The choice is ours.”

About the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce (CWCC)
The Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce cultivates a business community that is more inclusive of and empowering for women in Colorado. With programs designed to support leadership advancement, community connections, access to resources and advocacy, CWCC is driving work that works for all. Learn more at www.cwcc.org.