Three Reasons to get Serious About Sitting on a Board Right Now

Look I know as a working mother you have about zero time to do anything other than what currently gets you through your day. I so feel you on this. But I’m still going to ask you to reach deep within yourself and try to fit one more kind of big deal thing into your life right now. And the time to do it is right now not when the time is right—because the time is never right to add to your workload. My big ask is that you start today to position yourself to sit on the board of a publicly traded company. I can actually hear your eyes all rolling and read the thought bubbles over your head, “Sure thing, lady. I’ll get right on that.” I get it. Just give me the benefit of the doubt and do me a favor and read the reasons why you have to get behind this.

It is one of our last glass ceilings. Corporate Boards set the direction and overall guidance for companies. As of 2017 women held only 22.2% of board seats on Fortune 500 companies. There are still twelve Fortune 500 companies with zero women on their boards. The reason that even though women influence 83% of all consumer spending in the U.S. and even though nine out of ten women will be 100% responsible for their finances at some point in their lives we are woefully underrepresented at the highest levels of consumer influence is that it is in large part a rigged system. Typically the way new potential board members are identified is by the current board submitting an anonymous list of names to a search firm who would vet the candidates then provide the board with the finalists. For years this was very much a quid-pro-quo arrangement amongst the white men who dominated boards. They would agree to nominate their buddies for vacant board positions if their friend returned the favor. Also, most board positions required board experience which meant the largest existing pool was white men. This is where I feel that I have to qualify my love of white men as I have been married to one for eighteen years, have given birth to two of them, have been raised with a brother by an engaged and loving father so this is not about bashing white men. What it is about is calling out a playing field that isn’t level in the hopes that leveling it will benefit us all.
Most women don’t even know about the importance and lucrative nature of board positions. Let’s start with the fact that these types of board positions can pay anywhere between $80,000-$250,000 annually. That’s pretty good pay for four meetings per year and supplemental, though not full-time, work in between. I sure didn’t know that, and I consider myself a pretty savvy woman. My mind was first blown when I attended a session for the Women in Pensions Network (WIPN). The panel discussion was about women on publicly traded boards and was run by Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire who runs her own board search firm and has written a book called The Board Game, about women on boards. I was dumbfounded to find out how women are missing out on such critically important positions. I just assumed it was a more fair, egalitarian and open process. I hadn’t realized that it was the equivalent of trying to get into a fraternity as a woman. And I had no idea how underrepresented women were in that space. But as I sat listening to the panel of women board members my eyes were opened.
The positioning for board positions has to start early and be purposeful. After my eyes were opened at the WIPN session I was inspired to attend the 2020 Women on Boards conference. Most major cities have chapters of this organization. Their stated goal when they were formed was to get 20% female representation on boards by 2020. They continue to advocate for women representation on local publicly traded boards and educate potential female candidates through their outreach efforts. The day-long conference I attended in Phoenix was inspirational and empowering. But my biggest lesson of the day was that the time to start positioning yourself to be on a board is right this very minute. We women need to be leading by example and preaching it from the roof-tops to our younger female mentees that now is the time to be choosing a career path that gets you exposure to finance and operations of the company you work for. If you do sit on non-profit boards try to get assigned to the finance committee for additional exposure to budgeting. Try to get a seat on the board of a non-publicly traded company. Remember most publicly traded boards want you to have board experience and this is the way to get it. Also playing in all of these sandboxes will help you network with others who are sitting or could potentially sit on boards and recommend you.

It isn’t all doom and gloom when it comes to women on boards. Many states are looking to emulate California’s Senate Bill 826 which requires any publicly held companies based in California have at least one female member on its board. Also there have been numerous studies published that all support the fact that having three women on a company’s board increases profitability and productivity. Also in the financial-world there is a growing prevalence of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing.

The stage is set, the data is on our side, the momentum is swinging our way. It’s up to us to put ourselves out there as working women and mothers. So let’s dig deep, channel our inner Wonder-Woman and level this playing field once and for all.