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September 14, 2011
Women (Not!) on Board
It’s a sad fact: while plenty of reports say boards with more women make good business sense, men are still overwhelmingly dominating corporate boards. In fact, more than 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies have no women on their boards.
“Women control 80 percent of the spending in the U.S., so it’s pretty ridiculous to have that kind of spending power and yet not have women representing on boards,” Hala Moddelmog, president of Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc., tells PINK. She is currently a member of one public company board and three nonprofit boards.
Women’s presence on corporate boards has flat-lined in the past six years and decreased for minorities, according to an Alliance for Board Diversity study.
Moddelmog finds current statistics discouraging, but she’s optimistic. “The longer I’m in the business world, the more women I meet who have held the right kind of roles and who have an enormous value to add.”
When Moddelmog researched boards, she sought out opportunities and was certified through weekend programs at the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Kellogg School of Management because “I wanted to be board-ready when I got to that point in my career.” The fact that she’d spent her own money on getting educated impressed her interviewers.
Women can stand out by “having had a career that produced results,” Moddelmog adds. Plus, “taking a leadership role on a nonprofit boards will teach you about how boards work.” Susan Stautberg’s OnBoard Bootcamps offer short seminars on the ins-and-outs of board membership.
Some say opportunities for women are growing thanks to global competition among big companies and swapping out "sitting CEOs" for more active members.
Bonus PINK Link: Find out why companies see positive results from having more female board members.
By Caroline Cox
"Sometimes the best man for the job isn't." Unknown
*Supporting images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Pixomar, winnond and Ambro.
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Comments
What's it going to take to get more women on boards?
Despite the fact that women have come so far, make all the purchasing decisions, have climbed the corporate ladder, own significant business, serve in Congress and sit in the Supreme Court, we have yet to learn that our real challenge is whether we want to put ourselves through the wringer of playing the old boys game or invent an alternative route. Yes, alternative route. One that shaves years off the credentialing process. One that makes it difficult for the corporate elite's vetting system to continue providing preferential treatment to sitting board directors. Like the Catch 22 upon graduating university, e.g., trying to get a job without job experience. Like Susan Stautberg suggests, start developing governance muscle in the not-for-profit arena. Then learn how to parlay that experience up the board service supply chain. We at Boardroom Bound and the Boardology Institute show prospective candidates just how to do that. This illustrated by the many women we've trained how to attain board appointments that are now serving on corporate advisory, private business and publicly traded boards both here and abroad. Thanks, Pink for consistently highlighting this issue. Linda Bolliger: www.boardroom-bound.com
Women on Boards
I just read interesting facts that you may find shocking. Did you know:
More than 50 percent of all new MBA graduated and more than half (non-STEM) postgraduates are women?
Women represent almost 50 percent of all PhDs and 48 percent of all entrepreneurs globally.
Yet, they represent less than 20 percent of all high-growth CEOs and attract only 10 percent of all venture capital dollars.
Randy Siegel, Everybody's Gay Best Friend, httt://www.EverybodysGayBestFriend.com
Women on Boards
It's interesting to me that more women aren't serving on boards, especially when women seem to be outperforming men in every section of our society. There was a great article in Atlantic on this subject a year ago. Check it out: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/
Randy Siegel
Everybody's Gay Best Friend
http://www.everybodysgaybestfriend.com
Fear not! I work for a
Fear not! I work for a company that is 10% female. In five years I jumped from bookkeeper (more educated than my hire) and now I am the head of finance and I am in serious running to be the next CEO...just hang in there and prove yourself.