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Hi ala,
You know me. Usually I've got a fun/funny story and I somehow manage to turn it into a lesson for speakers and event organizers.
You know why I'm here: getting more women (and other underrepresented groups) on stage.
But, the stage isn't the end goal. We may be here talking about speaking but I don't care about the speaking (seriously) as much as I care about what comes from it.
Why? Because speaking leads to business and career success, pay equity, more funding for female founded companies, more women in the boardroom and more women in the C-suite.
Last night I was on a panel at an event run by the Private Directors Association: Board Composition and Gender. The first panel of the evening was a discussion about gender statistics on boards. We got a look at the latest data from Heather Spilsbury, CEO of 50/50 Women on Boards.
After years of gains, women's representation on public boards declined in 2026. 2025's change was a barely-there .1% but it was still a tick upwards. 2026? We declined by almost a full percentage point - from 30.1 percent to 29.2 percent. In 2026, women received 553 board appointments, compared with 1887 appointments for men. That's 22.7 percent for women, and 77.3 for men.
We're losing ground.
Bobbie and the Innovation Women Team
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