- France has introduced legislation to bring 50/50 gender parity to French board rooms by 2015. All companies listed on the French stock exchange would be required to stock their boards with 50 percent women. The affirmative action-like plan would begin with women on 20 percent of board seats in 18 months and 40 percent of board seats within four years. Presently, women comprise only 10.5 percent of board members in companies listed on the French stock exchange. Norway enacted similar legislation in 2003. [Guardian UK]—I love this idea of diversifying talent by overcoming institutional obstacles with quotas. And by way of comparison, the percentage of female board members on U.S. Fortune 500 companies—considering it is the year 2009—is a paltry 15.2 percent. What do you think?
- Hooray! There are lots of women on The New York Times‘ “Best Books of 2009″ list! Do you think the diverse offerings are helped by the fact that two of the Times‘ three daily book reviewers, Janet Maslin and Michiko Kakutani, are women? [New York Times]
