Proposal - Increasing diversity on Boards

Work with local securities exchanges to incorporate a requirement that all listed companies set “targets” for the number of women on the board and at senior executive level and report annual progress against the target One reason many initiatives aimed at increasing women’s representation on Boards have not resulted in greater gender diversity is that they often fail to engage the corporate sector. Real change in the number of women appointed to Boards and at senior management level requires strong leadership and a robust commitment from the corporate sector, especially corporate governance bodies of local securities exchanges. Governance bodies of

Proposed Solution: Investors encourage companies to change the director selection process and institutionalize a commitment to a diverse and inclusive boardroom. At Calvert investments, we have long believed that there is a strong business case for board diversity. Our sustainability investment research process includes diversity as a key factor in selecting the companies that are included in our sustainable and responsible investment portfolios. We recognize corporate diversity as a key ingredient necessary to succeed in an increasingly global marketplace, where the ability to draw on a wide range of viewpoints, backgrounds, skills, and experience is critical to a company’s

Create a leadership group of influential male CEOs and Chairpersons from a diverse range of leading businesses to place the issue of women’s under-representation at decision-making level on the country’s business agenda. One reason many initiatives aimed at increasing women’s representation at decision-making levels have not delivered thus far is that they focus solely on engaging and/or changing women—from the way women network to the way women lead. Too many organisations look to women alone to change the organisational practices that maintain the status quo. As we have seen in recent decades, this approach has had limited success. To accelerate

This solution would involve the development of a rating scheme designed to benchmark sector leadership and to reward emerging commitment to greater gender diversity at the board and senior executive level. It involves the development of an independent voluntary ratings scheme which builds on current public reporting supplemented by an independent evaluation. This evaluation would be based on a rigorous, transparent research methodology enabling institutional comparison both within countries and beyond. Organizations that performed well would be able to communicate that excellence through a "gender star ratings scheme" in the same manner companies can now communicate their excellence in

European countries have led the most dramatic response to board diversity by instituting quotas for women on corporate boards. Norway led the way in 2003 by requiring 40% of board seats to be held by women. They were swiftly followed by Spain (2007), Iceland (2009), France (2010) with the Netherlands (2010) and Italy (2010) having similar laws passed in their lower houses. Quotas on state-owned companies are also already in place in South Africa, Israel, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the cities of Berlin and Nuremberg in Germany and the province of Quebec in Canada. The European Parliament is also