Should companies be forced to add women to boards? A new bill seeks to try

Article here. Excerpt:

'An enduring fact in America is that there are still too few women in leadership. Across 3,000 U.S. large companies, women only hold 15% of board seats. It does not help that these boardrooms can be boys’ clubs. It was only last year that an Uber board member made the sexist joke of saying that more women on its board would result in “more talking.”

At the rate we’re going, these American companies will not reach gender parity until 2055. To speed things along, a new California bill, SB 826, was introduced. It would force public companies headquartered in California to have at least one woman on its board of directors by the end of next year, or risk getting a hefty fine. By 2021, companies with six or more directors, would need to have at least three of these board seats be filled by women.

The bill cites research that finds that having more women on boards “creates an environment where women are no longer seen as outsiders and are able to influence the content and process of board discussions more substantially.”'

Also see: California Bill Would Make Companies Add Women to Their Boards