California began to effectively outlaw all-white-male boardrooms nearly three years ago, with the first quota law going into effect in 2018. Requirements that publicly-traded companies diversify their boardrooms have been criticized, mostly by conservative voices, and courts are still threatening to find ways to do away with the rules. But across the country, other companies have begun to take the advice to heart, hiring more women and people of color in leadership positions than ever before.
The number of women in control of a corporate board seat is over 50% more than it was in 2018, when the first laws were signed in California. Women now control over a quarter of corporate board seats nationwide. Companies are also hoping to see these same diversity efforts across races and ethnicities, recruiting people of color rapidly. While courts are pushing to remind states that these rules could fall apart legally, other state and federal regulators are joining in to push for more diversity at the top. Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, chief executive of the Los Angeles-based advocacy group 50/50 Women on Boards, said, “The ripple effect has gone across the nation,” and she thinks that in the next decade “it will be quite an anachronism to remember when corporations had all-white-male boards.”
The Nasdaq exchange, which is mostly tech-focused, is requiring that almost all of its 3,000 companies have one woman, one woman of color, or one LGBTQ+ person on their board, or they will have to explain to their shareholders why they haven’t yet diversified. Republican senators fought against this rule, but federal regulators allowed it anyway. 12 senators wrote a letter saying the rule would sacrifice the economy for the sake of a social agenda, but the companies themselves seem fine with the rule, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and much of Congress do as well. Boardrooms shape the future of a company, and the companies we’re talking about here shape the future of our country, so any attempt to make them more representative of the population is a good thing. (LAT, $)
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