Gender balance on boards: five steps to achieve success.

• Author: Ellig, Janice
• Position: BOARD DIVERSITY - Column

How can any corporate board really afford to wait for gender balance? They can't, not if they hope to remain globally competitive. Here is how to kick-start the process.

Six years ago we were on the cover of this journal as co-authors of the featured article, "Getting from a Good to a Great Board--You Can Do It Through Gender Diversity." Central to our argument was Catalyst's breakthrough study, "The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women's Representation on Boards," showing that more women on corporate boards correlated with significantly improved financial returns--on average, 53% higher return on equity and 42% higher return on sales. Another 2008 Catalyst report, "Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers," showed that having more women on the board predicted an increase in the number of women in the C-suite five years later.

Improved performance and a boost to diversity presented an appealing "win-win" we felt sure would prompt boards to act. To help, we offered five actions directors could easily and quickly undertake to achieve board diversity, and we offered examples of how a number of major corporations had improved their gender mix over a 10-year period.

Then we stepped back to watch the transformation and the anticipated changes.

What happened? Virtually nothing. In 2008 when the article was written, 16% of the board seats among the S&P 500 were held by women, as tracked by the Spencer Stuart Board Index. Today, it's 19.2%, as reported by Catalyst in its 2014 Census of Women Board Directors released earlier this year. At this glacial pace of just 0.5% annually, female parity in the boardroom is nowhere on the horizon. If the past is an indication of the future, at this rate parity would occur around 2090.

Excuses abound about why change hasn't happened --ranging from "There aren't enough qualified women" to "Only sitting or former CEOs are qualified to serve on boards" to "We can't get there from here." Yet, given "The Bottom Line" study's financial performance findings, the increasing percentage of the well-educated and experienced talent base that women represent, the role of women in influencing decisions as business partners and consumers, and the fact that women are a growing percentage of regulators and legislators, how can any corporate board really afford to wait for gender balance?

For those corporate boards satisfied with one and done or two and through for...