Spotlight on those changing the board diversity paradigm.

PositionBOARD AWARDS

We have much to celebrate today. General Electric and Procter & Gamble have demonstrated that creating a diverse board is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for business. They have recognized that having more women in the boardroom contributes to better financial performance, improved decision making, and an increased pipeline of talented women in leadership and executive roles.

This year's Sandra Day O'Connor Board Excellence Award recipients--Pamela Thomas Graham, Frances Fragos Townsend and Ann Veneman--provide tangible proof of the valuable contributions women lawyers can make to a board and underscore the importance of our mission.

Our work is more important than ever. Only 19% of the directors of S&P 500 companies are women, and just 3% are women of color. Among the companies included in the Russell 3000, only 13% of board members are women and 32% of these companies have no women directors. Distressingly, it has been estimated that women will not achieve parity with men on corporate boards until the year 2042.

Rather than focus on these dismal statistics, we should celebrate today some of the real progress that is being made. For example:

* 26% of S&P 500 companies now have boards comprised of at least 25% women directors.

* 30% of newly appointed independent directors in the S&P 500 last year were women, which Is double the rate from 2008.

* Large institutional investors and shareholders are using their economic clout to make gender diversity on boards a priority.

* The ongoing international effort to increase the diversity of boards is having a significant spillover effect here in the United States.

Given the fact that women comprise almost half of the U.S. workforce, control more than 50% of all stock ownership, and make over 86% of all consumer purchasing decisions, it is long past time for the boards of public companies to...

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