Best Buy, Ralph Lauren only retailers among ‘Best Companies for Women to Advance’

When it comes to reaching gender equity, some companies are doing a lot better than others.

Only 43 companies made Parity.org’s third annual “Best Companies for Women to Advance List,” also known as the Parity. LIST. (Parity.Org is a not-for-profit dedicated to closing the gender and racial gap in corporate leadership.) And of those 43 companies, only two were physical retailers: Best Buy and Ralph Lauren Corp. (Online retailer Overstock.com also made the list.)

The ParityList was established to recognize organizations that have policies, benefits and programs that eliminate barriers to women's advancement in the workplace. Companies were rated on a comprehensive rubric covering recruiting, promotion, and compensation practices, leadership representation, and specific benefits and policies that collectively help companies achieve gender parity.

Of the companies on the 2022 ParityLIST, 88% regularly measure and report to the executive team on gender equality metrics; 86% communicate their gender-equality values to employees; 98% offer flexible working hours; 95% encourage men to take their full family leave; 98% have a zero-tolerance harassment policy (98%);  and 100% provide a safe complaint system for employees, among other supportive benefits.

Thirty-one percent of the companies have an executive team that is at least 50% women — up from 21% of companies on the list last year. Ninety-one percent of the companies require recruiters to include at least one qualified woman on candidate slates for executive positions reporting to the CEO, and 84% of the companies conduct an annual assessment for managerial women's career progression.

"Parity in leadership is crucial, but we know representation alone is not enough – we must create conditions intentionally designed to support women's ambitions, well-being and freedoms," said Roseann Lynch, chief people officer at Ralph Lauren Corp. and head of the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation. "A world of equal opportunity means enabling all who identify as women to go as far as they dream."

The full 2022 ParityLIST, arranged by company size, includes:

Large (>5,000 employees)
Airbnb
Blue Shield of California
Best Buy
Deutsche Bank
Fortescue Metals Group (Fortescue)
Nasdaq
Pegasystems
PepsiCo
Ralph Lauren Corporation
The Clorox Company

Medium (500-4,999 employees)
Advisor Group
Bowery Farming
COTA
Domo
Evolent Health
Guild Education
Lucid Software
Momentive.ai
Orchard
Overstock
Recorded Future
Satellite Healthcare, Inc.
Skillz Inc.

Small (<500 employees)
Aetion Inc.
b.well Connected Health
BehaVR, Inc.
Chatbooks
Davinci Virtual
dbt Labs
Employmetrics
Janani Life
Leena AI
Mogul
Real-Time Innovations, Inc.
Sports Innovation Lab
Suma Wealth, Inc
United Way of Salt Lake
Very, LLC
Little Otter
Motherly
Quil
S'More
Sēkr, Inc.