Comments on: Do we really have to force women into the boardroom?

By: TeqEsq

TeqEsq — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:04:49 +0000

Every day the debate rages on about women, men, parity and the workplace. You know the opinions, but what are the facts? Women are now responsible for more business startups in the United States than men. 150% more, as a matter of fact. Overall, women-owned businesses are an increasing percentage of the whole. Even so, for large companies, only 60 percent percent have a women on their board of directors. Hopefully, more women starting business translates into more women CEOs and offices in the next few years.

By: Donna Haghighat

Donna Haghighat — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:30:04 +0000

Agreed that there are certain areas in organizations that tend to be heavily female. I see it particularly at midlevels and higher of HR, as well as financial accounting. Outside of the corporate arena, a male elementary school teacher is a rare breed indeed. We do always make the argument that we need more women in the board room and we do, however, I think we need more gender diversity in all jobs. Research does show that groups perform better when they are gender diverse and I think we need to encourage gender diversity in all sorts of work groups.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:16:06 +0000

Hi Donna,
Totally agree with you, but I’d suggest that at lower to middle managerial levels, women are increasingly well positioned and represented, almost to the extent that men need to start looking at diversifying their own skills in order to keep up! Now that’s a discussion nobody’s had!

By: Donna Haghighat

Donna Haghighat — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:33:24 +0000

I agree that the quotas will do much to modernize and diversify boards and give women a critical voice. It will also mean better business results by studies conducted by Catalyst.org. However, we cannot stop at board quotas alone. Companies must examine their senior leadership and strive to be as gender and racially diverse in promotions and hirings there as well. European quotas have done much to bring women onto boards, but unfortunately, this has not trickled down to senior leadership as of yet.

My company, Shoptimize, a social enterprise .org( because we give at least 1% of our after tax profits to nonprofits as dedicated to advancing women as we are) is trying a novel approach, one that is consumer driven. Ours is a shopping website where one can shop women to the top. We feature products only from women-led growth companies. This can be another solution that channels the overwhelming (80%) purchasing power that women hold.