OPINION: “C-Suite executive disparity between women and men can be fixed overnight with the stroke of a pen! Simply stated, immediately pass law."

OPINION: “C-Suite executive disparity between women and men can be fixed overnight with the stroke of a pen! Simply stated, immediately pass legislation that requires ALL corporate boards of directors to have 50% of their director roles filled by women.  Leadership starts from the top, and once this legislation is passed, C-Suite representation will follow suit and change rapidly to match their Board of Director’s composition. Why are we delaying this?”

 FIRST: With absolute conviction, I state you really can not understand the disparity of how women are underpaid and underrepresented in executive roles, compared to men, in present-day corporate America, unless you commit the time to study it. Thus I highly recommend that everyone take Dr. Rebecca Harris’ University of South Florida’s summer course “Economics of Women, Men & Work (Eco 6936). https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/rebecca-harris-28594516/

SECOND: I apologize for taking so long to get this piece out. I have been wanting to write it for a month, but life’s issues always seem to jump the line.

THIRD:  I love Dr. Harris. She is one of USF’s finest professors, and when I took her course as a CEO and MBA student, two years ago, I was shocked to find how unfair our society and global societies are still treating women. The C-Suite (cluster of a company’s most important senior executives) disparity condition is OUTRAGEOUS, not only in pay disparity but in representation disparity. Women outnumber men in the US, and yet, based on their C-Suite positioning, you would have to believe that they are a tiny part of our population, or something very nefarious is at foot.

FOURTH:  During Professor Harris’s course, it occurred to me, how is it that US Corporate Board of Directors are permitting this disparity to continue? To my surprise, which really should not have been since leadership starts at the top, most boards of directors reflect the same disparity.

My role as a CEO, Attorney, and Mortgage Loan Originator, is to find quick efficient, and viable solutions to problems/challenges. Why not just pass laws requiring all Board of Directors to have a 50% representation of women? PROBLEM SOLVED, since the Directors of the Board, are basically the bosses of the C-Suite executives, and thus can demand the removal of gender-based disparities throughout all levels of a corporation.

FIFTH: Two years ago when I developed the solution, I thought to myself that it was so simple that it must have been done. Here is what I found:

In 2018, only the state of California passed legislation requiring one (1) board member be a woman.

https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/women-boards

The hope was other states and countries would catch on. IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. Some progress in Europe is taking form, evidenced by the recent CNN article “All Male Boardrooms are a thing of the past.” 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/business/women-ftse-350-hampton-alexander-review/index.html

But it is two years since I developed my idea and still no global or US legislation making a mandatory change in the Board rooms to match a nation’s population makeup. How can we ever expect the disparity in C-Suites to change if we as a society do not mandate change in the Board Room?

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? Please post them and maybe someone will take notice and lead the change we need.

If you are still not a believer, read last year’s article “A Push To Get More Women On Corporate Boards Gains Momentum” by Lily Jamali, NPR Morning Edition, March 5, 2020.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/05/811192459/a-push-to-get-more-women-on-corporate-boards-gains-momentum

LET’S KEEP THE MOMENTUM BUILDING!