According to the latest 2020 Women on Boards Gender Diversity Index of Fortune 1000 companies, women hold only 15.6 percent of the boardroom seats of America’s largest public companies. In the San Fernando Valley, these numbers are slightly higher, with women making up 19 percent of corporate board members. However some prominent companies based here, such as Cheesecake Factory Inc., have no women on their boards at all. As we enter 2013, it’s shocking that despite all we hear about the glass ceiling coming down, the numbers still show that women are underrepresented in the key decisions that run our nation’s most powerful companies. This is a battle I have been engaged in for the past 12 years, since my tenure as president of National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Los Angeles. We started monitoring the percentage of women on the boards of public companies. Since tha[RTF bookmark start: }_GoBack[RTF bookmark end: }_GoBackt time, this number has remained fairly static, hovering around 15 percent. Having worked with clients that include women and men in the C-Suite and on public boards for the last 15 years at Fraser Communications, I have seen the difference women can, and do make. As Daniel Goleman reports in his Harvard Business Review piece ‘What Makes a Leader?” the higher the rank of an executive, the greater the importance of emotional intelligence – and how it plays out in self-reflection, self-awareness and empathy. There is no doubt in my mind that women more often use emotional intelligence in constructive ways. As we work with companies to determine their brand essence and how to connect with employees and customers as brand advocates, I have seen women leading differently in four key ways: consideration of the needs of the broader audiences of employees, the community and customers; an emphasis on training employees and social responsibility; a more collaborative leadership style, including opening meetings to multiple perspectives; and concern for the organic growth of the organization and its longer-term prospects. There is also the issue of the bottom line: companies that include women in the boardroom are 42 percent more profitable than companies that do not, according to the 2011 Catalyst Census and McKinsey’s Women Matter research from 2012. The point is simple. Besides being fair, it is simply good business to have women directors on U.S. public company boards. Gone are the days of the excuse that there are not enough suitable women for these roles. That is simply not true. It is time we do something about the lack of women representation in the boardroom. The goal for the 2020 Women on Boards campaign is to get at least 20 percent of women representation on public boards by 2020. In California, we currently have 133 women on boards for companies based here. We need another 85 seats for women by 2020 to obtain the 20 percent goal, an objective which is quite doable, but board seats do not turn over at a fast pace. It will require concerted effort on the part of board members and nominating committees. If you are a senior executive in a publicly traded company, look for the women leaders in your company whom you think are good prospects. We have talked for a long time about the importance of mentoring, but that is not enough. The successful companies have integrated goals for women and people of color into the fabric of the senior executives’ performance metrics. And, senior executives are expected to “sponsor” individuals with promise. That means guide them carefully and recommend them for specific assignments so that they are gaining the requisite experience. Change won’t happen until thousands of people ask for it. Believe me, we can find 85 women with senior level C-Suite experience to serve on the boards of California’s publicly traded companies, but not without some effort. I encourage you to make your voice heard. Add it to the thousands who are working to change the composition of U.S. company boards – one woman at a time. If you are woman considering board involvement, be sure you sit on and are active on a major non-profit board. Let people know you want a board position as part of your career objectives. Embrace the principle that diversity in the boardroom encourages good corporate decision-making. After all, aren’t we worth it? Renee White Fraser is chief executive of Fraser Communications, a Los Angeles advertising firm, and a radio host on KFWB-AM (980). She holds a doctorate in psychology from USC.
