An Epic (Missed) Diversity Opportunity

Both Nike and Under Armour’s CEOs stepped down last week and two new men have taken the helm at these notoriously male dominated companies. According to Bloomberg, both companies have added females to their executives teams in recent years to address systemic inequality issues.

“Nike has called women’s apparel an ‘epic growth opportunity’ and, along with Under Armour, has made an aggressive marketing push to appeal to women. Both have signed deals with some of the biggest female athletes, including Simone Biles, Misty Copeland, and Serena Williams. Yet, internally, few women hold top jobs. Women make up only 36% of VP-level roles and 39% of director roles at Nike.”

The research has showed us time and again that diverse leadership teams correlate to higher returns. The lip service given to female equality in these cases is especially disheartening. These companies are saying that they want to prioritize women and doing the opposite when it comes to leadership decisions. We aren’t given much insight into the search selection processes either. Assuming the boards attempted to interview diverse slates, it didn’t work. Diverse slates don’t necessarily lead to diverse placements.

Awareness of the “epic” opportunity to prioritize women is clearly not enough to enact systemic change. Perhaps other boards of directors will take note of this epic missed opportunity as they build for the future.