Mind the gap.

• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

EARLIER THIS YEAR I participated in an all-day roundtable discussion devoted to board diversity that opened my eyes to what was going on globally with regard to the movement of women into corporate boardrooms.

The roundtable was held in Washington, D.C., at the headquarters of the World Bank's International Finance Corp. (IFC) arm. It was organized and moderated by a longtime colleague, Irene Natividad, chair of Corporate Women Directors International. I have been a big booster of increased board diversity for 30 years, as a glance at the DIRECTORS & BOARDS archives can attest. During most of those years the progress of women attaining corporate board seats has been glacial.

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But lately there is some evidence of women making noteworthy inroads. The Directors Roster quarterly data on board recruitment that we have published in each issue of the journal for the past 16 years is tracking an upward trajectory of women being elected to boards. There was a big breakout in 2009, when women represented 39% of new directors elected to boards, up from 25% in both 2008 and 2007 (and up from 13% in 1994, the first year we began recording board elections). And a glance at the Directors Roster on page 66, which presents a sample of the new board appointees for the second quarter of 2010, shows that we are still maintaining an elevated state this year, with women taking 36% of board openings in Q2, following a 34% rate in Q1.

But until sitting in on this particularly intense discussion at the IFC I was not as focused on what was happening globally on board diversity. When we were briefed on what Norway had achieved with its legislation mandating gender balance on boards in that country, and how other countries in Europe...