Podcast Summary
There are 8,000 women in the Women on Boards Project database who want a consumer brand board seat. Only 77 have been placed.
That gap tells you everything about the real problem. Why are there not enough women in consumer brand boardrooms?
In this episode, Shreshta Joy brings to the show Kierstin Rielly, CEO of Women on Boards Project, to dig into a structural gap in the consumer brand world. They unpack why consumer brands and their investors still struggle with gender diversity in the boardroom and what it actually takes to change that.
Women on Boards Project works exclusively within the consumer vertical. CPG, apparel, consumer tech, healthcare tech, restaurants, boutique fitness. Their founding partners came from consumer operations and from private equity and venture capital firms that invest in consumer, so they know the ecosystem inside and out. That specificity is the point.
Kierstin is blunt about who they serve: companies and investors, not women. Progress on boardroom diversity requires getting to the decision makers who control the seats.
Kierstin reframes the conversation from a supply narrative to a demand narrative, arguing that the bottleneck is not a shortage of qualified women but a shortage of open seats and decision makers willing to fill them with first-time, diverse candidates.
The conversation covers the myths that slow progress (nonprofit boards as stepping stones, the “board ready” gatekeeping term), the real value of active women operators and specialists in the boardroom, and why diverse boards make better decisions.
Episode Highlights
02:20 Women on Boards Project: Why Focus on Consumer Brands?
06:06 Shifting the Corporate Mindset: Demand vs. Supply of “Qualified Women”
09:50 Navigating Broken Corporate Systems & Debunking Board Myths
15:09 Empowering First-Time Board Members & The Operator Edge
19:33 Disrupting Groupthink: Gender Diversity & “The Magic Third”
Key Themes
Kierstin brings up some amazing points about gender diversity in consumer brand boardrooms:
Demand Problem, Not Supply Problem
Women on Boards Project has 8,000 women in its database. Only 77 have been placed. The constraint is not talent availability. It is the number of open seats and the willingness of investors, founders, and CEOs to prioritize gender diversity when filling them. The organization serves companies and investors first, not candidates, because that is where the decision-making power sits.
The “Board Ready” Myth
Kierstin is pushing to eradicate the term “board ready” from the consumer brand vocabulary. Boards operate differently from one another. Asking whether a woman is “board ready” applies a gatekeeping standard that is rarely imposed on male candidates. The term creates an artificial barrier that has no consistent definition and no consistent application.
The Nonprofit Board Myth
A common piece of advice for women seeking board seats is to start with a nonprofit board. Kierstin challenges this directly. In six years of kickoff calls with investors and brands, she has never once heard a client request nonprofit board experience. Nonprofit board service is valuable on its own terms, but it is not a stepping stone to for-profit board seats.
First-Time Board Members and Active Operators
57% of Women on Boards Project placements are first-time board members. Kierstin argues these candidates bring higher enthusiasm, stronger preparation, and real-time operational knowledge. An active operator at a category-adjacent company knows what is happening with tariffs, pop culture, and market dynamics because they are living it daily. That makes them more valuable advisors than someone sitting on five or six boards simultaneously.
The Magic Third and Boardroom Decision-Making
Drawing on Malcolm Gladwell’s concept from The Revenge of the Tipping Point, Kierstin explains that when any minority group reaches one-third representation in a group, the entire group makes stronger decisions. Tokenism (one woman on a four-person board) creates pressure to speak for all women. Two or three women on a five-person board create a shared lived experience, eradicate groupthink, and lead to better collective outcomes.
Quick Takeaways for Women Seeking Board Seats
Here’s what you should take note of:
Stop Waiting to Be “Board Ready”
That term has no consistent definition and no consistent application. If you are an active operator running a consumer brand or a function within one, you already have what most boards actually need. Do not let a vague gatekeeping label convince you otherwise.
Find a Mentor Who Is Already in the Room
Kierstin’s strongest piece of advice is to find a woman who is already serving on the board of the kind of company you would want to serve on. Ask her directly: how did you get your first board seat? How did you get your second? There are hundreds of paths to the boardroom. Hearing those stories is one of the most practical things you can do.
Talk About It, Frequently
Say out loud that you want a board seat. Say it to your network, your mentors, your peers. Kierstin acknowledges it sounds a little woo, but visibility matters. The people who control open seats need to know you are in the market. You cannot be matched to a seat nobody knows you want.
Do Not Treat Nonprofit Boards as a Stepping Stone
In six years of kickoff calls with investors and founders, Kierstin has never once heard a client request nonprofit board experience. If you feel strongly about a nonprofit mission, join for that reason. But do not invest your time there thinking it is the path to a for-profit consumer brand board. It is not.
Ignore the “Work Harder to Navigate the Broken System” Advice
The system is the problem, not you. There is nothing women are doing wrong or incorrectly or that they need to be doing differently. The progress happens when investors, founders, and CEOs create demand for diverse board members. Your job is to be visible, be vocal, and be ready when the seat opens. Not to contort yourself into a mold that was never designed for you.
This conversation is a reminder that the structural barriers to women’s representation in consumer brand boardrooms are not about talent shortages. They are about who controls the open seats and what criteria they use to fill them. Like Kierstin says, it’s a systems issue.
Women on Boards Project offers a model for how the industry can close the gap, one seat at a time.
Disclaimer: The content shared in the Digital Shelf Insider Podcast by MetricsCart is for general informational and discussion purposes only. The insights, opinions, and perspectives expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not constitute professional advice, recommendations, or endorsements by MetricsCart or any affiliated entity.
