It's time that we, in the United States take a cold hard look at what WORKS vs. what does NOT WORK in terms of getting women on boards of directors. . . . background

Here, in the US, we have over 42 years of Catalyst trying to persuade corporate leaders to please, pretty please, include more women on their boards. We've had their 20 years of giving awards to companies in recognition of their diversity initiatives. We've had over 30 years of failed legislative initiatives, including the Fifty States Report, the Equal Rights Amendment, the Glass Ceiling Commission, the Glass Ceiling Reports by the EEOC, and now we have about a decade of EEO lawsuits. And still we have the "flat line" growth rate of barely one half of one percent a year improvement in the share of women on boards of directors.

What worked in Norway, in part, clearly was a little swinging of the proverbial two-by-four to the side of the head with its amazing ability to focus business attention on the job that needed to be done.

What it REALLY took, though, was the forward thinking of the NHO leadership saying to themselves, "What if they are SERIOUS, this time?" AND by their establishment of an Education, Experience, Information and Training program worthy of the female board candidates. AND by their creation of a database of the graduates from which corporations could select the best and the brightest candidates for consideration for board roles.

The quality of the training is crucial: they are teaching women how "to network" not merely in the sorority-sister-schmoozing sense, but rather in the sense of corporate business building, alliance building, collaborative building, and team building. They are teaching women how to not merely "help, support, enable", but rather how to plan strategically, to envision a corporate future, and to manage the appropriate levels of risk necessary to attain business and economic goals.

What was significant about the Norwegian NHO Female Future program? Several things:

1. Companies do it themselves. This is what boards of directors should have been doing all along in the form of their internal management development programs. But, the NHO set up a "best practices" methodology for all companies to consider.

2. Companies look inside. They do not go searching for Sleeping Beauty in the Business Forest, or for SuperWomen in Gotham, or the Lone Female Ranger somewhere in the Plains. The talent is right there in front of their eyes - in their own organizations.

3. Companies send the women for governance training. Women already are really talented, competent and educated. They just need to understand this governance thing - train them for the positions you want them to take.

4. Companies just pick 3 "high potential women". Don't JUST pick 1 woman. Don't try to pick some huge number that will scare all the men in the company. Just find 3 women to take a seminar and see how many of these succeed.

   If top California companies did something like this, there would be 330 women a year eligible for top corporate governance positions, for corporate advancement and training as directors. That would be 42% of the number of women on top Fortune 500 firms - IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES!

5. Companies invest in just a semester. Women near the top in corporations don't need a lot more training, but they do need the opportunity to stop all the helping and supporting and assisting that we've conditioned them to do as nice little Stepford Corporate Wives. Women need to start learning the vision, strategy, risk assessment and leadership things that we need our best boards of directors to start doing.

Norway works. The US can't get it right? What to do?

I do admire the free economic marketplace, so I am not a fan of quotas. I do like the idea of giving each American public company the "opportunity" to identify 3 high potential women whom they would send to a really great governance education program. There are a lot of good US governance education programs that we could make great by tapping into some of the educational insights learned in Norway.

Rather than quotas, in this country we have something called "Truth in Advertising". So, if a top US Fortune 1000 firm tells us that they just could NOT possibly find 3 high potential women a year among all of their entire corporate management ranks, then I think every employee of that firm, every customer of that firm, and every investor in that firm ought to know that the firm believes that it has:

Public disclosure of that statement, in the interest of "Truth in Advertising," would be a lot more powerful and effective in guaranteeing that that company never did any business ever again in this country.

Sources:

Women in leading positions – because we need to increase our competitiveness! from the www.nho.no website

Expatica.com: Women and the Board -- Times are Not A Changing by Natasha Gunn, editor of Expatica HR; 29 June 2004

Expatica.com: Norway: Moving Beyond Tokenism by Jennifer Hamm, freelance journalist based in The Netherlands; October 2004

A Woman's Place is . . . on the Board by Gwladys Fouche, Guardian Unlimited, August 10, 2005

Norway to Ensure 40 Percent Women on Board by Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity; April 7, 2005

Changes Proposed to Equal Status Act European Industrial Relations Observatory On-Line; October 1999

Government Wants More Women on Company Boards European Industrial Relations Observatory On-Line; March 2002

Developments in women's representation on company boards European Industrial Relations Observatory On-Line; December 2004

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