California is moving toward becoming the first state to require companies to have women on their boards –assuming the idea could survive a likely court challenge.
Sparked by debates around fair pay, sexual harassment and workplace culture, two female state senators are spearheading a bill to promote greater gender representation in corporate decision-making. Of the 445 publicly traded companies in California, a quarter of them lack a single woman in their boardrooms.
California may mandate a woman in the boardroom, but businesses are fighting it
While I understand the sentiment, I don't agree with the government getting involved to this degree in business. Mainly because I don't see it actually solving what they are trying to solve.
The easy way around this for any board is to simply appoint the wife of some CEO, and pay her a salary. Benefit for the CEO is he now gets to pull two salaries from the company profits.
A lot of these positions on a BoDs is honorary anyway. It's not necessarily a position of any actual power. Also any woman having a position on a BoD could be assumed to have been mandated the position instead of earning it. It may end up making it tougher for a woman in these positions to be taken seriously.
I'm not saying there aren't plenty of strong will business minded women, just this doesn't really guarantee such a women getting a position on the board. There's also men on the boards in honorary positions which hold no real power.
So I'm not against it, it just doesn't really fix anything. It's basically a social justice gesture.
Sparked by debates around fair pay, sexual harassment and workplace culture, two female state senators are spearheading a bill to promote greater gender representation in corporate decision-making. Of the 445 publicly traded companies in California, a quarter of them lack a single woman in their boardrooms.
California may mandate a woman in the boardroom, but businesses are fighting it
While I understand the sentiment, I don't agree with the government getting involved to this degree in business. Mainly because I don't see it actually solving what they are trying to solve.
The easy way around this for any board is to simply appoint the wife of some CEO, and pay her a salary. Benefit for the CEO is he now gets to pull two salaries from the company profits.
A lot of these positions on a BoDs is honorary anyway. It's not necessarily a position of any actual power. Also any woman having a position on a BoD could be assumed to have been mandated the position instead of earning it. It may end up making it tougher for a woman in these positions to be taken seriously.
I'm not saying there aren't plenty of strong will business minded women, just this doesn't really guarantee such a women getting a position on the board. There's also men on the boards in honorary positions which hold no real power.
So I'm not against it, it just doesn't really fix anything. It's basically a social justice gesture.