CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE TAKES BOLD STAND URGING ALL PUBLIC COMPANIES TO PLACE MORE WOMEN ON CORPORATE BOARDS

by Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, author of The Board Game: How Smart Women Become Corporate Directors

SACRAMENTO (Sept. 16, 2013) The California Legislature was the first of any state in the nation to pass a resolution urging all publicly held corporations in the state to place more women on their boards within three years–by end of December, 2016. If a corporate board has nine director seats, at least three should be held by women; if five-to-eight seats, at least two should be held by women; and if four-or-fewer seats, at least one woman should be on the board. Research by University of California at Davis reports that almost half of California’s 400 largest public corporations have NO women on their boards of directors.

The National Association of Women Business Owners-California, (NAWBO-CA) where I serve on the state-wide board, sponsored the resolution. Its author is Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, and co-author is Assembly member Bonnie Lowenthal of Long Beach, CA, both are vice-chairs of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.

NAWBO-California is proud to have proposed the concept of “3 women directors in 3 years” because having women on corporate boards is good for the economy and for shareholders. There are hundreds of experienced women business owners and executive women in this state who are board-ready. According to Catalyst, the preeminent research organization tracking issues for women at work, current national statistics of all Fortune 500 boards seats held by women remains stagnant at 16.6%.

Citing Credit-Suisse research that companies with women on their boards perform better than those with no women, this historic resolution demonstrates that the California Legislature is committed to “protecting shareholders of publicly traded companies, as well as setting policies that enable them to perform better.” In passing this resolution, and the state of California joins many influential organizations and activist institutional investors urging transparency in the process of nominating and selecting corporate board directors in order to include board-ready women.

For the text, votes and history of SCR62, follow the link below

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SCR62