A new report from GovernanceMetrics International has found that more than 40 percent of the world’s largest publicly listed companies have not appointed even one woman to their boards. Even in major markets like Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States women continue to be grossly under-represented on corporate boards.
What can be done? Quotas are almost certainly not the way. Personally, I believe the answer to be much more emphasis on Board Performance Evaluation measured against the Corporate Governance Code 2010. The Code does, in my view, provide a template for best practice and an external board evaluation done well will highlight the requirement for diversity on the board. Organisations are short changing themselves if they exclude women from the board - either purposefully or because of poor legacy practices. It is almost certain that many of the excessive risks taken by all-male boards would not be have got through an appropriately diverse board.
