While homebuilding has long been a traditionally male-dominated industry, national homebuilder and developer Taylor Morrison is being recognized for creating a gender-diverse workforce. Today the homebuilder joins the ranks of 230 companies selected for the 2019 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI), which distinguishes companies committed to transparency in gender reporting and advancing women’s equality.

Sheryl Palmer, the only woman to lead a publicly traded homebuilder, has presided over the company for the last 11 years, growing the workforce to nearly equal male-to-female representation (54 and 46 percent, respectively), and boosting women’s seat at the leadership table. Women make up 33 percent of senior leadership and 47 percent of middle management roles across the homebuilder’s 17 divisions nationwide.

“As a female leader, I have always wanted my strategic eye and work ethic to define me—not my gender,” said Palmer. “My recruitment philosophy isn’t tied to meeting quotas, but rather, to always hire the best person for the job. Fortunately, that ‘gender blind’ mentality is shared across the organization, and I believe we’re a better company because of it. Homebuilding and corporate America at large can benefit from greater diversity of thought and women’s intrinsic differences, and I am proud that the exceptional leadership and talent Taylor Morrison enjoys today grew organically.”

In July of last year Taylor Morrison’s board of directors joined the less than one percent (0.4 percent) of U.S. public companies with majority female boards. 

“In the world of recruiting we so often say ‘top talent attracts top talent’—and Sheryl is our draw,” said Jess Terry, chief people officer for Taylor Morrison. “Companies simply attract more women when they can show that women have successfully risen to their top ranks. More than any recruiting initiative, it has been key for us to demonstrate that there is an open door and a path to the top for women at any level.”

Bloomberg’s standardized reporting framework offers public companies the opportunity to disclose information on how they promote gender equality, but just 10 percent of eligible companies today are disclosing their workplace gender policies and practices. Taylor Morrison scored above a globally-established threshold, based on the extent of disclosures and the achievement of best-in-class statistics and policies, in order to be included in the GEI.

According to Bloomberg, disclosures from firms included in the 2019 GEI provide a wide-ranging and comprehensive look at how companies around the world are investing in women. According to GEI data: 

• Women had a 40 percent increase in executive level positions between fiscal years 2014-2017.

• 60 percent of firms conduct compensation reviews to identify gender-based variations in pay to close their average 20 percent pay gap (18 percent on average in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Middle East regions and 26 percent in Asia-Pacific).

• 34 percent have programs in place to recruit women looking to return to work after a career break.

• For U.S. employees, the average number of weeks of fully paid primary leave offered is 13 weeks, and the average number of weeks of fully paid secondary leave offered is 5 weeks.

• 43 percent of firms cover gender reassignment services in health insurance plans.

• 68 percent of firms evaluate all advertising and marketing content for gender biases prior to publication.