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Local boards must push for gender diversity

By Jane Scaccetti and Bill Marrazzo A recent study sponsored by the Forum for Executive Women found that many local universities and health-care systems do a far better job including women on their boards than some public companies in the region.

By Jane Scaccetti and Bill Marrazzo

A recent study sponsored by the Forum for Executive Women found that many local universities and health-care systems do a far better job including women on their boards than some public companies in the region.

All of the 17 health-care systems and the 18 universities surveyed had at least one woman on their boards and the majority of them had at least three. By comparison, 35 of the Philadelphia region's top 100 public companies had no women on their boards.

However, nonprofit boards are significantly larger than most for-profit boards, so 15 of the nonprofits surveyed had fewer than 20 percent of women on their boards and few achieved parity.

Clearly, both nonprofit and corporate boards in the region can and should do better.

This is the time of year when many institutions, including the medical and educational community, are looking for candidates to serve on their boards of trustees. As they consider candidates, these local enterprises should view improvements to their gender diversity numbers as yet another means to meet the pressing and growing educational and health-care challenges of our community.

Widely circulated studies from such respected sources as McKinsey & Co. and CreditSuisse, along with speeches by such national leaders as the secretary of commerce and the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, make clear that gender diversity on boards of directors improves governance, increases economic competitiveness, and gives access to a bigger talent pool.

As community leaders who passionately love our city, we know firsthand that board diversity is a precondition for ensuring the most creative and innovative solutions to our region's opportunities and challenges. That means creating boards that benefit from diversity of gender, as well as race and ethnicity.

We are not making the argument that women are "better" than men. We are, however, making the suggestion, one firmly rooted in evidence, that perspectives informed by the different life and professional experiences men and women bring to the table yield new and often better decisions.

Both of us have experienced the value that diversity brings. One of us (Bill) learned a lesson on diversity while a member of the Fairmount Park Commission, seated next to the late Ernesta Ballard, a seasoned horticulturist and one of the few women on the board. Ballard often spoke of the need to think about the park as more than a recreational asset. She saw it in terms of sustainability, with community gardens to nurture its population. Her perspective, considered quite radical at the time, has now become fashionable and shows how diverse perspectives can help any organization find new value.

As leaders who have served on both for-profit and large nonprofit boards, we have asked ourselves why women make up such a small percentage of directors or trustees and why the number has barely improved in the past 30 years.

It is not a supply issue. Currently, more than 50 percent of college graduates and more than a third of those acquiring master's in business administration degrees are women. Many are at the top of the class. Though there are not enough women top executives, there is a significant pool of women leaders in business, government, and the nonprofit sector.

Therefore, we're facing a demand issue. Not enough boards declare gender diversity a strategic imperative. This attitude must change. Our leaders must routinely demand that, in any pool of candidates for board positions, women are significantly represented.

Having served on many search committees, we have seen the subtle barriers to gender diversity in board recruitment and candidate screening. Most people look for candidates like themselves and are comfortable with tapping their immediate networks to find them. Think of it as opening the refrigerator and asking, "Where's the catsup?" The answer: "Look behind the milk."

There are many women leaders in our community qualified to be directors. You must make an effort to seek them out - to move the milk. Nominating committees need to solicit suggestions from other women, something that proved successful when Ernesta Ballard was asked for potential women board candidates.

We must also give women in senior management positions an opportunity to serve on boards even if they are not the CEO, and support consultants and other professionals to serve on boards. We must be open to first-time women candidates, offering them an opportunity to develop and grow with mentorship and experience.

There is another way to achieve gender diversity for boards that have few openings and low gender diversity. Most charters of educational and health-care institutions allow for additional committee members who are not board members. Adding women to a committee would give them experience and visibility with the board and richly add to the candidate pool when a board seat is available.

We commend the enlightened leaders who see the benefit of making diversity a priority and encourage others to do the same.