This year, 2020 Women on Boards reached its goal of having 20 percent of boards in the U.S. be women.
While nearly one-tenth of all public companies don’t have women on their boards, the overall trend leaves room for optimism. Three decades ago, the typical boardroom looked and sounded much different.
“When I began my career in the 1980s, I was told that in order to succeed, I needed to act like a man, dress like a man and certainly make decisions like a man,” said Jill Ashton, senior vice president of Lytle Enterprises. “Looking back, it’s obvious today that that was complete nonsense. What the world and businesses really need are women who lead like women, with all of our strengths, our insights and our intelligence.”
Ashton spoke at the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Women Who Lead event Oct. 18. The event included a panel discussion with Hope Cochran, managing director of Madrona Venture Group; Jeni Elam, expansion director of BoardReady and TalentVault; Sarah Imbach, angel investor and startup adviser; and Susan Mask, board chairwoman of Seattle Children’s Hospital.
One challenge to increasing the number of women on boards is the slow turnover of board members. Term and age limits are one way to overcome this challenge, but few companies are implementing these concepts now.
“If you’ve sat on a board for nine or 10 years, you really aren’t an independent director anymore,” said Cate Goethals, chief journey and strategy adviser at the Athena Alliance. “You’re really part of the company, part of the mindset. It’s hard to bring in fresh thinking (when you’ve sat on a board for a decade).”
Goethals advised women to seek positions that would help them gain the type of clout people are looking for from their board members. Once on the board, women must have the confidence to voice their opinions.
“If you don’t speak up, it doesn’t happen,” Mask said. “They want you there not for just what you know, but in part for who you are so you have to bring your whole self to the boardroom.”
Oftentimes, being the only woman on a board brings the burden of “speaking for all women,” as was Imbach’s experience.
With two women on the board, Imbach did have an ally, but the change came when a another woman joined.
“When we added a third woman to the board ... none of us were women anymore — we were board members,” she said.
Cochran, who said it takes about a year to feel comfortable in the role, advised to research the other board members, to see how they know each other outside of the boardroom and what other board positions they hold.
“Those dynamics are very much at play in the boardroom,” she said. “You learn that there are alliances outside of the boardroom.”
The goal of bringing more women on boards is to diversify a company’s approach.
“Diversity of thought has two benefits,” Elam said. “One is risk reduction and the other is increase in revenue.”
