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July 30, 2019 at 12:19 PM
The news that the last all-male S&P 500 company board — Copart, a Dallas-based used car seller — just added a woman to its ranks also shines a light on the financial advisor business. The move to add female board members may be due to studies finding that diversified boards are more creative and make better decisions, but it also can be a tokenism move — especially with just one female board member.
“One female director per company is a good starting place, but at that level there is still a risk of tokenism,” said Meggin Thwing Eastman, ESG research executive director at MSCI, in a statement. “In fact, globally we have seen the rate of women being added to boards with open seats slowing over the last few years. We hypothesize that this phenomenon may be caused in part by some companies feeling they have done what they need to do — and reduced the external pressure — once they have a single female director.”
For perspective on the glacier speed of this movement, she cited a Stanford University study that found the first female board member of a large U.S. company was Clara Abbott of Abbott Laboratories in 1900, while Coca-Cola had its first female board member in 1934.
State Street, which recently moved the Fearless Girl statue across the street from the New York Stock Exchange, recently took further action to signal the firm’s move toward gender diversity, according to Ali Weiner, State Street’s ESG investment strategist.
In a recent webinar, Weiner said that State Street sent letters to all the companies in their global portfolios — numbering in the thousands — asking them to nominate one woman for their boards to push gender diversity.
“The campaign was successful with 35% of the companies nominating a woman or promised to do so,” she said. She added it was a good step but more work is needed. As shareholders, State Street votes for female board members. “We use all the tools at our disposal; voice and vote.”
