By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

At last month’s Forté MBA Women’s Conference, the Forté Foundation announced an initiative to increase the number of women on corporate boards in the US. By working with its partner schools, as well as Intrabond Capital, Watermark, and Women on Boards 2020, the organization will develop a list of hundreds of board-ready professional women.

After all, despite a plethora of qualified women ready to take board seats, companies still seem to need help locating them. According to Catalyst, women only held about 16% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies last year. Perhaps a list of women ready to take on director positions will encourage companies to think twice about whom they hire for top roles and why.

Elissa Ellis Sangster, Executive Director of the Forté Foundation explained that each of the organization’s member schools will be asked to participate. “We’re asking the schools specifically to identify five women. And at least some will identify more than that.”

It will take some time to develop, Sangster explained, noting that the women identified will have to give their permission to be included on the list as well, and the schools will provide a representative who can work with executive search firms and other groups looking for women board candidates. “We’re really trying to be a conduit,” she explained.

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By Robin Madell (San Francisco)

“By the end of the speeches, you’re going to feel like you haven’t done anything in your career!” This was a statement overheard several times in passing from attendees earlier this month at the seventh annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet in Santa Clara, California, held by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). The sentiment referred to the continuously high caliber of award winners who have the distinction of receiving an ABI award for leadership, innovation, or social impact.

Yet by the time the speeches were through, the packed ballroom of 800 attendees— which included more than 100 students with attendance sponsored by tech companies and local universities—was clearly inspired, not discouraged. This was due not only to the impressive video bios that recounted the winning women’s achievements, but to the “anti-bios” that each winner bravely shared, directing their advice in particular to the younger women in the audience.

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to new research, IPO firms with male CEOs get the advantage with investors, compared to those with female CEOs. This news probably comes as no surprise, but the nuances revealed by the study point to a conclusion that should be concerning to anyone who works in a field characterized by the term “meritocracy.”

When it comes to matters of gender, there’s no such thing as fair play. For women at least, outcomes are rarely based purely on performance. More and more research is showing that gender weighs heavily on the equation when it comes to your job, your promotion, your paycheck, and – in the case of this new study – how much investors are willing to pour into a business.

A working paper recently released by researchers from the University of Utah and Washington University in St. Louis suggests that female led IPO firms do worse than male ones. The study says, “Despite identical personal qualifications and firm financials, female Founder/CEOs were perceived as less capable than their male counterparts, and IPOs led by female Founder/CEOs were considered less attractive investments.”

Moreover, the researchers say, even though prospective investors were presented with identical information on performance, experience, and qualifications, “Female CEOs were seen as less experienced, less able to lead, less able to resolve TMT disputes and board deadlocks, as well as a less favorable representative of the company in the eyes of the public.”

Women continue to be perceived as less capable leaders than men, simply because they are women.

While many companies purport to be meritocratic in the way they reward top producers, studies like these show that we’ve got to wonder what kinds of gender biases play into sponsorship and promotion within companies, as well as investments into IPO firms.

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Earlier this week, almost three hundred women board directors gathered at the second annual WomenCorporateDirectors Global Institute to discuss issues that corporations are facing in an increasingly global and complex marketplace.

Last year, the organization, composed of over 1,400 women in 42 chapters around the world, put forth a call to action to increase board diversity. In order to do so, this year, the group announced its newest project: the WCD Global Nominating Commission, a task force of CEOS and nominating committee chairs from top corporate boards, which will focus on increasing diversity on candidate slates for directorships.

Henrietta H. Fore, global co-chair of WCD, CEO and chairman of Holsman International, and a director at ExxonMobil and Theravance, Inc, said, “With the Commission, we are taking on the next challenge – urging nominating committees, who determine the composition of the board, to focus on global diversity.”

She added, “We will work with these important decision-makers in a whole new way.”

Alison A. Winter, global co-chair and co-founder of WCD and a director at Nordstrom, added, “With greater demand on boards and from boards to increase diversity, the Global Nominating Commission will be an important center of influence for nominating committees worldwide.”

Increasing diversity on candidate slates has been touted as a way to build more diverse boards, without resorting to quota rules that have been adopted in countries in Europe and Asia. Board diversity has been shown time and time again to drive better decision-making and has been correlated with increased corporate revenues.

Based on the challenges that corporations will face in the coming years, diversity can only improve boards’ ability to tackle the tangled web of global opportunities that lie ahead.

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