Better Corporate Governance - Building Gender Balanced Business

In May of 2002, The Conference Board of Canada published findings of their study on women and corporate governance.

The report suggests a link between female numbers on boards and good-governance credentials. For example, it found that more gender-balanced boards tended to:

• pay more attention to audit and risk oversight and control
• more often considered the needs of more categories of stakeholders
• examine a wider range of management and organizational performance
• 94% of boards with three or more women (compared to 58% of all-male boards) insist on conflict-of-interest guidelines

It also found that:

• 72% of boards with two or more women conduct formal board performance evaluations, while only 49% of all-male boards do
• companies that provide boards of directors with formal, written limits to authority have a greater percentage of women directors than do organizations with no formal limits to authority
• organizations that provide boards of directors with formal orientation programs have a greater percentage of women directors than do organizations with no such program.

Conference Board Canada Report
Not Just the Right Thing, the Bright Thing