NEW YORK (AP) — A study has found that America's largest companies added women and minorities to their boards of directors at a faster pace over the past two years, a period when sexual harassment scandals thrust workplace equality into the spotlight.

African-American and Asian women made the fastest gains, although minority women still hold less than 5 percent of board seats in Fortune 500 companies. That's according to the 2018 Board Diversity Census, released Wednesday by the Alliance for Board Diversity and the consulting firm Deloitte.

The study shows that the number of black women on the boards of Fortune 500 companies jumped by 26 percent between 2016 and 2018.

By comparison, in the four-year period between 2012 and 2016, the number of black women on corporate boards rose just 18 percent.