Half of women sitting on corporate boards of directors around the world support quota systems to fix stubborn gender imbalances in the boardroom, but less than 10 percent of their male colleagues agree, said a study released this week.
Female directors are also more likely than men to approve of term limits and mandatory retirement ages to change corporate board membership, said the survey by Harvard Business School researchers, the WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) Foundation and Spencer Stuart, a consulting firm.
Asked how they arrived in their board appointments, 39 percent of women said their gender was a significant factor.
Just 1 percent of men said the same, said the survey released on Wednesday.
Men and women were divided as well on the reasons that female board membership remains low, said the survey, which culled responses from more than 4,000 male and female directors from 60 nations.
Male directors, particularly older men, say there is a “lack of qualified female candidates,” it said.
But female directors say diversity is not a board priority and traditional networks tend to be male-dominated, it said.
“It’s often hard to see an informal ‘network’ if you are in the middle of it, but you can see it very clearly when you’re on the outside,” WCD chairwoman Susan Stautberg said in a statement.
Forty-nine percent of female directors supported quotas to promote board diversity, compared to 9 percent of male directors.
Women younger than 55 were more likely than older women to support such quotas, the survey said.
Women hold one in eight corporate board seats worldwide, according to research by the global consulting firm Deloitte, which analyzed board membership in 49 nations.
Board quotas have been set up in several European nations, and a European Commission proposal seeks to make 40 percent of corporate boards female in the next four years.
Among women, more than 40 percent favor government regulations that require boards to disclose the steps they are taking to promote diversity, while just 14 percent of male directors agree, the research by Harvard, WCD and Spencer Stuart found.
By Ellen Wulfhorst
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Source: Reuters
At a recent training I was facilitating, I invited people to ask me anything anonymously using polling technology. While the questions always give me great insight into where people are struggling with issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), this question seemed more universal: “What do I do if my manager is not inclusive?”
Our society’s tendency to look to men for expertise is one of the things that holds women back in our careers. But we can all help give women’s knowledge and accomplishments greater visibility, which will cause people of all genders to view women as experts and turn to women for expertise more.
Right now, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are under growing scrutiny. Some companies are pulling back from DEI initiatives amid nervousness around shareholder activism and possible investor or customer pushback. Highlighting the benefits of DEI to an organization’s performance and the wellbeing of employees is the best way to address this negativity.
