Women On Boards of Sci/Tech/CS Companies
Hi friends of women in science,
I don't know how you feel about putting women on governing boards of companies, but it would certainly not be too many, in my view, if 20% of boards were women. Here's a web site called 20/20 where efforts to increase women on boards to that level by 2020 are coordinated. Here's a video explaining in cookie-cutter terms what they advocate and why.
What's going on now? It varies a lot. Intel has 10 on its board and 2 are women--good. Amgen also has 2 but the total is 14, so the percentage is lower. Merck also has 2 women on its board but a total of 12. For Microsoft, 11 board members also includes 2 women. Mettler-Toledo has 9 with no women at all. NVIDIA also has 9 board members with no women. Advanced Micro Devices has 11 board members with 1 being a woman. You can go to the website and find out what a particular company has. You can also ask, for example, which technology companies lack any women on their boards, and similar queries. I would encourage every woman in STEM fields to find out how the companies she deals with regularly are doing, and send off a letter to the board chair if they could use encouragement to improve. This month, 20 20 has a somewhat automated 3 click feature to request that a board include women on their website.
Cheers,
Laura
Hi Lizzie,
I agree, let's say "way to go" to the ones doing a great job including women on their boards.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I got all the tech ones in California to compare and a couple stood out for kudos: BioRad (33%) and HP (27%). I think it's fair to send the ones doing a good job a congrats note, as well as chiming in to NVIDIA, etc, saying time to get women!
cheers,
LRP
Dear Laura,
The one that surprised me was Apple. Only 1 out of 8 board members female. Po Po Po.
FBP
Hi Gunilla,
Great! I think even a few requests could make it worth their checking to see if anyone was available, and then she'll be great whoever she is, so it'll be a slam dunk.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I like this idea, and had fun playing with the web site seeing who had what. I was pleased Pfizer is pretty good. I am shocked about Mettler, have used their scales forever and now, well I'm going to ask them to consider putting a woman on the board!
GP
