Boston Properties is planning a 575,000-square-foot, 26-story tower on top of Boston's Back Bay Station. Image courtesy of Boston Properties.

Among the 25 biggest companies in Massachusetts, Boston Properties ranks near the bottom for the share of women in leadership roles.

That’s according to a new report from the Women’s Power Gap (WPG) Initiative at Boston’s Eos Foundation, which is launching an annual survey of Massachusetts’ biggest companies by market capitalization tomorrow.

The study shows companies are making strides adding women to their boards of directors, where women make up 31 percent of all slots in the companies surveyed, but finds women still aren’t making it into senior executive roles.

“The corporate ladder appears to be broken at the top rung for both women and people of color. Our research at the WPG examines the path to the CEO’s office, and while women account for 25 percent of the executive leadership teams, from which CEOs are chosen, they aren’t being selected for that next step, comprising only 10 percent of the highest paid executives and 4 percent of the CEOs,” Eos Foundation President Andrea Silbert said in a statement. “Our other major finding is that women of color are grossly underrepresented on both the boards and within executive management, holding only 6 percent of board seats and 3 percent of executive leadership positions. This requires immediate action.”

Among the state’s biggest companies, only Insulet has a female CEO, but three companies have reached gender parity on their executive leadership teams: Alexion, Alnylam and Bright Horizons. Alnylam is the only company to have reached what the report terms fair representation of women of color – 15 percent or more – on its executive leadership team. In addition, five companies have selected women to serve as their lead independent directors, including board chairs: American Tower, Bright Horizons, Hologic, Skyworks and State Street.

The report labels Boston Properties, an REIT with a market capitalization of $22.45 billion that owns some of the area’s biggest landmarks like 200 Clarendon and the Prudential Tower, as “need urgent attention.” Its past and present CEOs are male, the report found as are all of its five highest-paid executives, its four other top executives, the most senior independent member of its board and the chairs of the board’s compensation, audit and nominating and governance committees. Four of its 11 board members are women, however, an average number for the 25 companies reviewed in the report.

Boston Properties was not immediately available for comment.

“Commercial real estate is a male-dominated industry, “ Jill Sharif, president of CREW Boston, told Banker & Tradesman in an email. “According to a 2017 CREW Network white paper – ‘Diversity: The Business Advantage – Best Practices for Gender Equity and Inclusion in Commercial Real Estate,’ women in the industry consider the lack of a mentor or sponsor within their company as the number one barrier to success. Women in commercial real estate are 54 percent less likely to have a sponsor – an individual who can provide career advice and actively help advance a career path.”

The paper found women represent approximately 35 percent of the commercial real estate workforce in the United States and 37 percent in Canada. The industry median annual compensation for women in 2015 was $115,000, compared to $150,000 for men – an average gap of 23.3 percent. The CREW Network, which supports and advocates for women in commercial real estate, is currently surveying real estate industry professionals about their roles and pay.

Overall, 10 of the 25 companies reviewed in the report scored “unsatisfactory” and another 9 joined Boston Properties on the “need urgent attention” list, meaning the report’s authors believe them to need to implement significant change to achieve gender parity. Those companies included Boston Scientific, Thermo Fisher and Keurig Dr. Pepper.

“We believe that implicit bias is holding women and people of color back, and it’s time for today’s leading men – because most of them are men – to tackle that head-on. The fact that women are 31 percent of all board members speaks to the effectiveness of deliberation and intentionality in making diversity a goal on public company boards. These women and their male allies should push companies to take urgent steps to promote more women and people of color to executive leadership and the C-suite,” said Silbert.

Deborah Jackson, president of Cambridge College and lead director of Eastern Bank, and Carol Sanchez, founder of Sanchez & Santiago and director of Main Street Bank, will join Massachusetts Secretary of Labor Rosalin Acosta and Pam Reeve, former CEO of Lightbridge and lead director of American Tower Corporation, will speak at the report’s official unveiling Thursday at the Battery Wharf Hotel.