Glass ceiling: Women hold only one of five board positions

Women continue to have a tough time when it comes to being appointed to a corporate boards, a new survey finds.

Men land four of every five board seats, finds the survey by Catalyst, which specializes in finding ways to promote women within organizations. It’s even worse when it comes to female CEOs. They hold only 4.2% of the elite top jobs.

“Men continue to be overrepresented, holding more than their fair share of board seats and, in some cases, all the board seats,” says Deborah Gillis, CEO of Catalyst, in a statement.

The 2015 Catalyst Census is being presented on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., at the United State of Women summit. The summit is aimed at bringing together women to celebrate past achievements and future opportunities related to key gender-equality issues.

“Our new census shows little progress has been made at the board level, and even less progress has been made in the pipeline for women officers and directors — suggesting women are nowhere near the path to parity with men,” says Gillis, who will be a featured speaker at the event.

“There’s a lot of missed opportunity to do things differently,” said Brande Stellings, Catalyst vice president of corporate board services.