More women means more money

More women means more money

by digby

Whodduthinkit?

Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors

That's via Wonkblog's graph 'o the year series.

I'm not sure what it is that women bring to the table. I'm quite sure it's not higher morality or better character. I'm going to guess it's that they aren't part of the old boys club and as a result aren't subject to the same groupthink. If you're on the board of directors you are likely to have the confidence to challenge the guys.

Whatever it is, it argues for the Randroids to stop thinking of smart women as their sexy Dagny Taggert's worshiping them for their manly swashbuckling and start treating them as equals. (Or at least for normal corporate boards to see there might be a financial advantage to having more women directors.)

In case you were wondering:
Women held only 16.9% of corporate board seats in 2013, indicating no significant year-over-year uptick for the 8th straight year. And only 14.6% of Executive Officer positions were held by women—the 4th consecutive year of no year-over-year growth.

Women of color continued to fare particularly poorly, holding just 3.2% of all board seats.

10% of companies had no women serving on their boards; more than 2/3 of companies had no women of color directors. 
Women held only 8.1% of top earner slots—again no change from prior year.






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