1. Women On Boards of Directors:
Why Skirts in Seats Aren’t Enough
Meliana Lumban Raja
University of Pelita Harapan, 2013

2. The European Commision has a plan to impose 40%
Introduction quota for women on boards of directors by 2020.
Two goals of increasing female representation on
boards of directors: gender parity & improved
governance.
This article examines conditions that allow gender
diversity boards to flourish and which conditions
lead to failure.

3. Facts about Women
in Europe

4. Facts about Women
in Europe

6. Conditions for Board Diversity Success
Barriers to Access for Women
There is a similarity bias where people are psychologically driven to like others similar
1. Stereotypes to themselves, that causes male dominated boards are more likely to prefer male
candidates.
The most common method used to recruit new board members was
2. Access to Networks:
recommendations by existing members. Women often lack this entry of networks.
3. Limited recruitment There are not enough qualified female candidates for highest levels in organizations
pool (pipeline problem).
Two different types of leadership needed to increase female representation on
boards:
4. Missing Leadership a. Female role models/mentors can pave the way for future candidates.
b. Current CEOs and board chairs ask nomination committees to seek out female
candidates.

7. Barriers to Utility
There are boundary conditions specifying when board diversity is useful and
1. Types of Tasks
when it's not.
Hiring women with less experience in order to fulfill the quota, rather than
2. Focus on Quotas
hiring those individuals who will contribute to governance quality.
When a board member is appointed because she is a woman, and she is the
only woman on the board, it's easy for her ideas to be swept aside, ignored
3. Tokenism and dismissed. Only when boards reach the critical mass of three or more
women directors can they start to make a difference in improving
performance.

8. Helpful Circumstances
That Allow Boards to Improve
Governance with Gender Diversity
1. A culture of diversity.
2. Explicit discussions of team processes.
3. Diversity as a strategy.
4. Placing value on director independence.

9. Steps to Achieving Gender Parity on Boards
Without measurement, there is no progress. This measurement will add
1. Measure Progress
extra institutional forces pushing firms to diversify their boards.
2. Actively search for Search committees may be required to extend their searches beyond the
qualified female candidates narrow pool of current and prior CEOs and directors.
3. Professionalize the search Use search firms to access a wider range of possible candidates through
process formalized process.

10. Steps to Benefiting from Board Gender Diversity
Quotas for female representation focus attention on the
1. Avoid quotas numbers themselves rather than the benefits to be gained
from increased gender diversity.
If boards reach the critical mass of at least three seated
females, there is an increased likelihood that those women
2. Reach critical mass for the right reasons
will be integrated into the board and their ideas be taken
seriously.
Firms must develop an environment that is conducive to
3. Develop a diversity culture
diversity of thought.

11. Thank you!