Target is the latest S&P 500 company to join the list of Council member companies with a combination of women and people of color who make up more than half of its directors. That brings the total to 140 companies that at last count included General Motors, Walt Disney and Best Buy.

“An additional 60 boards are evenly split from a diversity standpoint,” Bloomberg reports, drawing on data compiled by ISS Corporate Solutions. “At the end of 2020, there were 93 boards with a majority of under-represented members and 56 at parity, the data show.”

The share of white directors, meanwhile, continues to drop, down nearly 20 percentage points since the beginning of 2020. This is in part a “reflection of the demographics of companies’ consumers and a lot of skill sets companies are trying to solve for,” says Marija Kramer, head of ISS Corporate Solutions.

Corporate board diversity has been a priority in recent years, as Nasdaq Inc. and Goldman Sachs have issued requirements that “emphasize any combination of women, people of color and LGBTQ directors” on corporate boards, according to Bloomberg. “Nasdaq requires boards to give an annual report on diversity and either have a diverse board or explain the lack of such a mix. Goldman requires diversity on boards as a condition of underwriting an initial public offering.”

Target’s 13-person board now includes five women — three of whom are Latina — and two Black men.

While there’s still much work to be done, gained held seven more seats on the boards of companies in the S&P 500 in August compared to July, though the average number of female directors remained unchanged at 3.5 when the average board size is 11. The percentage of female directorships was also unchanged at just under 32%.

Private Sector Outpacing Public

Even so, the private sector would seem to be outpacing the federal government in recruiting and retaining more diverse leadership. People of color make up about 38% of the federal workforce but make up only 24% of employees in the Senior Executive Service who serve in key leadership roles, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data shows.

Although President Joe Biden “campaigned on the promise to bolster diversity and equity across the American economy,” Axios reports that nearly two years into his presidency, “the federal government continues to face challenges with hiring, retaining and elevating people of color.”

In an effort to improve its performance, the Biden administration in early October announced the formation of the Chief Diversity Officers Executive Council, “the latest C-suite level interagency council,” as FEDweek describes it.

“Among many goals for the council, members will consider how to help agencies implement DEIA into recruiting, hiring, developing, promoting and retaining federal workforce talent,” the Federal News Network reports. The council will also “assist with setting clear strategies, benchmarks, and metrics for DEIA standards of excellence and accountability to be employed across the Federal government,” according to a Sept. 29 OPM press release. (The “A” in DEIA stands for “accessibility.”)

This isn’t going to be easy, especially since the private sector has rebounded from the pandemic employment levels, while the government has not. Nonfarm private sector employment was 885,000 higher in August than in February 2020, when the pandemic hit. But, citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bloomberg reports that government employment “was still down by 645,000,” prompting the snarky but forgivable headline “Does Anyone Want a Government Job? Anyone?”