When BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, took companies to task for the lack of women on corporate boards earlier this year, it struck a chord with Julie Gorte.
Over the last several years, competing notions of “diversity” have emerged. In many corners, the traditional definition, focused on demographic diversity, has been eclipsed by a new concept centered on experiential or cognitive differences.
California became the first state to require its publicly held corporations to include women on their boards after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law on Sunday. The bill, which applies to companies “whose principal executive offices” are in California, requires them to have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019.
As long-term investors, our office is working to encourage companies to adopt responsible business practices, so that they are sustainable for years to come.
Each year, publicly-traded companies ask shareholders to vote on items that are pending on their annual proxy ballots.
The tone of much public discourse on the issue of women’s representation on boards has been pessimistic of late, and understandably so, given
...we find that banks with more gender diversity on their board perform better once the composition of these boards reaches a critical level of gender diversity, corresponding to a board female share of around 13-17 percent.
