The end of the school year doesn’t mean the end of a Spartan’s quest for knowledge. This week, Eli Broad College of Business Dean Sanjay Gupta took his quest to New York City to learn more about the state of workplace equality – and how to better it.

Gupta attended the Bloomberg Equality Summit on Tuesday, May 8, which emphasized data-driven solutions and actions regarding this critical issue for both business and society.

logo“Diversity and inclusion are not just important values for every organization, but imperatives that must be pursued with purpose and urgency,” Gupta said from the summit. “Success on moving the needle on D&I will come from transparently sharing data and monitoring progress.”

Along those lines, at the conference, hosts and attendees quantified the state of corporate equality by reviewing the 2018 Bloomberg Gender-Equity Index (GEI), measuring gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings of more than 100 companies in 24 countries and regions, according to Bloomberg.

“Equality is the single most important ethical issue businesses today need to face head-on,” Bloomberg said in promoting the event. “Creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce – to serve an increasingly diverse consumer base – is also vital to the success of virtually every business operating today.”

Highlights from this year’s index provided by Bloomberg include:

  • 2018 GEI members have a 26.2% representation on boards, compared to an average of 12.7% in the ESG (environmental, social and governance) universe of coverage
  • Women in GEI member firms hold 26% of senior leadership positions and 19% of executive officer roles, and earned 46% of promotions in 2016
  • The percentage of executive-level positions held by women in GEI member firms increased 33.5% from fiscal year 2014 to 2016
  • 67% of members evaluate all advertising and marketing content for gender biases prior to publication
  • 65% of members are signatories to or members of organizations advocating for gender equality

Bloomberg is a global business news, information, and technology company delivering data, news, and insight to its corporate clientele. It publishes 5,000 stories a day to its 325,000 clients around the world, according to its Web site.