6/23/2014
ViewPoint: There’s light on the horizon for increasing women on boards - Boston Business Journal
From the Boston Business Journal
:http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/print-edition/2014/06/20/viewpoint-theres-light-on-the-horizon-for.html
SUBSCRIBER CONTENT: Jun 20, 2014, 6:00am EDT
ViewPoint: There’s light on the horizon
for increasing women on boards
Staff Boston Business Journal
For 13 years, I have been working with colleagues in The Boston Club and nationwide to
persuade corporate leaders to add qualified women to their boards. Even though progress has
been slow, in the past two years, I have seen growing awareness of the need to diversify
boards. And, even more recently, I have seen evidence that, in Massachusetts at least,
awareness is turning into action. Last week, I was privileged to attend an extraordinary meeting
organized by Trish Karter and the Alliance of Business Leaders. In this session, 125 CEOs,
business leaders and other people of influence gathered to begin a conversation about two
important issues in the Commonwealth: how to get more women on corporate boards and how
to close the gender wage gap.
We heard Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh declare that the commonwealth
and the city must lead the way to make progress on these fronts. They echoed what many of us
have long repeated: to change this, we must take action. All of us, individually and together,
must act. It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s a business imperative.
The candor with which leaders talked about their challenges during this session was refreshing
and energizing. Several CEOs openly acknowledged that they have no women on their boards
and that they need to change. There was an open and helpful exchange of potential solutions
and best practices, including executives like Bob Rivers of Eastern Bank, who shared successful
strategies to achieve boards that are an impressive model of diversity.
Along with other members of The Boston Club, I have spent countless hours reaching out to
good women board candidates, combing through resumes for the right ones to send to
particular businesses and meeting with corporate leaders to make the case for considering
women candidates. I have been alternately encouraged by the periodic evidence of
improvement and dispirited by the agonizingly slow pace of change. But the discussion in that
room last week gave me hope. More importantly, I came away with a sense of enthusiasm and
belief that we are on the cusp of change.
The meeting resulted in a plan for concrete follow-up steps, including a commitment to stay in
close touch with companies who are working to “get on board” and a resource list for
businesses seeking to create diverse boards.
The momentum is shifting. While The Boston Club has been at this for 35-plus years, many
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6/23/2014
ViewPoint: There’s light on the horizon for increasing women on boards - Boston Business Journal
additional organizations are now working to highlight the problem of too few women on
corporate boards, and many more leaders are voicing plans to take positive and definitive
action. And, if the comments, suggestions and advice shared last week are any indication, then
we will indeed create change and permanently alter this landscape. The will and the
commitment to action, and the inclination of leaders who “get it” to impress upon their
colleagues who don’t the need to step up and act, can produce long overdue results.
JoAnn Cavallaro is president of The Boston Club, one of the largest communities of women
executives and professional leaders in the Northeast.
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