Over the past 15 years, Nolle Lenoir has put together an impressive list of accomplishments. She has

Over the past 15 years, Noëlle Lenoir has put together an impressive list of accomplishments. She has practiced international law, taught at Columbia University’s law school, served as the French Minister of European Affairs, chaired the department at France’s leading business school, and served on France’s Institutional Council, the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2008, Lenoir was appointed to the board of directors of global insurance giant, Generali Group. Around the same time, many European governments were passing bold new legislations designed to increase the number of women in its corporate boardrooms—mandating gender quotas.

Research shows that companies often perform better on bottom line financial indicators such as return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital when women are on their corporate boards. Still, the proportion of women on corporate boards worldwide has not improved much over the past two decades. 15% of U.S. corporate boards consist of women. In comparison, women made up less than 10% of EU-wide corporate boards in 2009. The country-specific breakdown painted a bleaker picture. Though Germany and the UK have 13% and 12% of women on their boards respectively, the proportion of women on corporate boards in France was 9% or less. Some have suggested another, more simplistic reason why more women don’t hold more positions of power—men have no incentive, personal or professional, to relinquish theirs.

Before Norway passed gender quota legislation in 2003, only 7% of corporate directorships were held by women. The mandate required all state-owned and publicly-traded companies to increase female board directorships to 40% by the beginning of 2009 or risk being shut down. Similar legislation is scheduled to take effect in Spain and the Netherlands in 2015 and 2016 respectively. France plans to pass its version of gender quota legislation requiring a 40% increase in female board presence by 2016.

Lenoir supports the establishment of gender quotas and believes that women will have greater corporate opportunities as a result.

Questions

1. Do you believe that legal quotas are necessary to increase the diversity of top management teams?

2. How can companies leverage the increasing numbers of women on corporate boards?