California Bill Supporting Gender Diversity on Boards Advances

The California State Assembly will address a bill this week that would require all publicly traded company boards in California to meet gender diversity quotas. The bill has already been approved by the State Senate, and would require the companies to have at least one woman on the board by 2019. Hannah-Beth Jackson, author of the bill and a California state senator, hopes that the bill (called SB826) will help push the state into the position of a leading example in gender diversity nationwide. She believes the boardroom quotas could improve the workplace overall for women, especially in combating sexual harassment. This controversial bill could yield very positive results since companies with higher representation of female board directors perform significantly higher financially.