Women on Corporate Boards of Directors: Where do We go from Here?

Abstract

Research on corporate board diversity, including gender diversity with which this volume is concerned, has to date largely taken the form of benchmarking — that is, comparing numbers and, to some extent, best practices — across companies and industries. Today, we have a great deal of this type of quantitative information for selected countries on the representation of women on corporate boards. Researchers have also compiled a large body of descriptive data on: (1) corporate boards’ recruitment and selection processes; (2) individual women directors’ expectations and actual experiences related to their participation on corporate boards; (3) background characteristics of women directors; and, (4) expectations and experiences of Chairmen and CEOs who have brought women onto their companies’ boards or are considering doing so. In our experience, benchmarking the progress that companies operating out of different countries are making in increasing the representation of women in corporate governance is useful for:

• expanding our inventory of “best” and “worst” cases, along with the cultural and historical factors associated with women’s progress (or lack thereof) in corporate governance

• providing the metrics needed to measure change over time, and to confirm or dispel public perceptions about the extent of progress for women in the arena of corporate governance generating healthy competition among corporate entities that draw on the same global markets and sources of labor

• surfacing best corporate practices that are effective in recruiting and effectively utilizing women in corporate governance

• creating change for women

Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by the School o f Business, York University and Catalyst.