Former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner Talks Gender Diversity
By the time Hefner left Playboy in 2009, more than 40% of the executives were women, she said.
As Christie Hefner rose through the ranks of Playboy Enterprises, becoming CEO in 1988, she thought that by now women would be equally represented in the boardroom, but that's far from the case.
Presently, women make up about 22% of S&P 500 boards and there are just 28 female S&P 500 CEOs, according to BoardEx, a relationship mapping service of TheStreet Inc. Five companies within the index still don't have a woman on their boards.
"It's both troubling and disappointing to be where we are," said Hefner.
Hefner, 64, said there is no single answer to why there has been little advancement toward gender parity, but she's been actively working to change increase the number of women on boards.
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