This subseries consists of research project materials related to Catalyst’s census initiatives. The Catalyst census was the product of statistical research compiled on the number of women on corporate boards of Fortune-list companies, as well as corporate officers and top earners. Women on corporate boards has been a longtime topic of interest for Catalyst; its Corporate Board Resource was established in 1977 to assist corporations in seating women on their boards (see Series IV. Subseries A. Corporate Board Placement). Catalyst began capturing statistics on women board directors as early as 1969; the first comprehensive census was published in 1993. It surveyed companies on the Fortune 500/Service 500 list. The Census of Women Board Directors (WBD) was repeated annually until 2007, with the addition of a second Census of Corporate Officers and Top Earners (COTE) in 1996. A Canadian version of the two censuses commenced in 1998.

Census research was conducted by compiling data from public records, such as annual reports, 10Ks, and proxy statements. Companies were then asked to verify and make corrections to the data. This subseries consists of such raw data for the 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2005 censuses. The data is arranged alphabetically by company name, and includes a data summary sheet, detailed data logs, and correspondence. Statistics related to corporate diversity are also present. These data seem to have been maintained by Catalyst in a database, which is no longer extant. The subseries also includes a small amount of administrative files, which precede the survey response data, including drafts of a ten-year retrospective report that was published in the 2003 WBD and COTE censuses. See Series III., Subseries Y. Published research reports for the published census reports.