The term 'glass ceiling' was coined in 1984. More than 20 years later, the ceiling has barely cracked. There isn't a single country in the world that has as many female as male politicians. In business, the situation is even worse. Its highest echelon - the board - remains a chauvinist's dream.
Diverse perspectives lead to a better outcome. There's so much data, when you look at the math, in terms of the investor returns and the shareholder value that gets created from more diverse boards.
Boards without women - blacklist those suckers. It's 2011. They've had the time - it's significant that they don't have women.
We're long past having to defend or explain why women should be on boards, given all the data that shows how companies with female as well as male directors perform better. It's unfortunate when companies with a large percentage of women constituents don't reflect that in their boardrooms.
Accenture has long been a champion of inclusion and diversity and, specifically, gender balance at every level of our organization, including our board of directors.
'Women on Board' provides a roadmap for high-performing women leaders to join high-performing boards. It is a must-read for every sitting board director, man or woman, and for everyone who aspires to a corporate board seat.
Ambassador Kennedy brings to the Boeing board professional, diplomatic, and global perspectives that are highly valued in our rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive global business environment. Her diversity of experience and accompanying insights will broaden and strengthen our board in its deliberative and oversight roles for the company.
In particular, I want to set a challenge to public bodies and private companies to improve gender balance on their own boards.
The role of a board of directors is to be a sounding board for the vision of the company - to hold executives accountable in executing that vision and to ensure a management succession plan is in place.
Savvy companies are quietly changing up their boards of directors and teams, and this is giving them better collective intelligence, more community admiration, and better financial results.
I don't invest in shares in companies that don't have women on their board.
What I see with the utility industry is, more and more, we're taking up this belief that our workforce, our leadership ranks, our board should be reflective of the community that we serve.
There's an opportunity to make your board - and your company - smarter by adding diversity, especially of gender.
