BY: Jasmine Ball
In the early 1800s, women did not have the power to make contracts, own property or vote. Women were seen solely as servants to their husbands. By the 1840s, however, that began to change when many bold, outspoken women challenged the laws governing their physical well-being and resolved to take action to claim the rights of citizenship that had been denied to them by men.
A tale of heart and grit.
It was their bold voices and the voices of many other women across the nation that sparked the beginning of a revolution we now know as the women’s rights movement. A movement which inspired collective actions over decades that ultimately transformed laws and altered the course of history.
However, from the time the first Woman’s Rights Convention was held in 1848, which outlined grievances women faced and pushed for equal treatment under the law including voting rights until the time the 19th Amendment was passed (the law granting women with the right to vote) in the U.S. was a 72-year-long fight …a 72-year-long fight over beliefs that women’s political participation threatened their important roles as wives, mothers, educators, and philanthropists.
Fast forward to now, just over 100 years since the 19th Amendment was passed, that same battle over a woman’s “proper role” continues. Only this time, the fight is in the workforce over matters such as equal pay and gender diversity at the executive level. The change needed will require even more bold voices politicking for the future of women plus the willpower to lead that change. There are many women and organizations today making great strides for the future of women in the workforce. We want to highlight a few of them and the work they are doing to advocate for gender diversity in the boardrooms across America.
THE WILL TO LEAD: WOMEN ON BOARDS
We’ve heard before that faith without works is dead. The same can be said in terms of women’s rights. It’s never been enough to just have bold, outspoken voices. Those desires must be coupled with willpower and determined action to claim the money, power, and respect often denied to women by men.
Cindy Burrell is an example of a bold voice in modern day advocating for change and creating opportunities for the change she wishes to see on the leadership level. Burrell is the Founder and President of Diversity in Boardrooms, an executive search firm that assists corporate boards in recruiting and referring diverse directors to add value and to ensure better representation of American strengths. She not only has the will to lead, but her work over the last 20 years is a reflection of what sheer desire and determination can accomplish in boardrooms across America, one boardroom at a time.
When sharing what sparked her work at Diversity in Boardrooms, Burrell stated, “In 2001, I woke up about boards. Enron crashed all these other companies, and suddenly board directors were on the news and in the papers. I really had never paid attention to board directors and who they are and when I listened to what they had to say, I saw they weren’t doing a great job. So, I got involved in a nonprofit organization that had a two day training for women and people of color to learn what they had to do to get on a corporate board. And later, I was hired.” During that time, there were very few companies with women filling seats on their board of directors. Burrell spent the next several years focusing on getting qualified women and women of color who care about the staking claim to a place on both public and private company boards. “The company has to make money and be profitable, but the company also needs to think of the consumers, the employees, and the community. If they are not thinking about that they end up causing problems, getting major lawsuits, not being a good company, and that’s the mess we’re in,” said Burrell. “What’s been happening is the board has been so focused on the money and profitability and not focused enough on if the employees are being treated well and retention, etc.”
Breen Sullivan and Katrin de Haën, the founders of The Fourth Floor are also making waves to level out the playing field for women in the workforce. Their company has created a ‘Back Room’ for founders, woman-led funds, angels, and limited partners to encourage women to invest in each other and open up their boards and cap tables.
“Women need to be on boards, but they also need funding, and they need to be writing checks,” said Sullivan.
The Fourth Floor’s Pay It Forward initiative is targeted to advance for-profit board careers for 75,000 women by the end of 2025. The initiative incentivizes all companies to ‘pull more chairs up to the table,’ bring diversity into their boardroom, and empower women executives to initiate or advance for-profit board careers all while saving money against the bottom line.
“If you are a CEO, CHRO, board member, or decision maker, now is the moment to not get left behind! You can take the pledge and start advancing board careers for women right now,” said Sullivan.
WHY HAVING FEMALE REPRESENTATION ON THE BOARD IS IMPORTANT
According to the Women on Boards Gender Diversity Index report, women now hold a historic 25.6% of the Russell 3000 company board seats, the most considerable one-year growth in the percentage of women in the past decade. It also reported that 1/4 of Russell 3000 companies have one or no women directors at all –- a significant improvement from just four years ago when over 50% of the companies had one or no women on their boards.
Many studies have shown that companies with women on their boards perform better than those without women in key metrics. For example, a 2009 study ranked Fortune 500 companies by the number of women directors on their boards, and those in the highest quartile reported a 42% greater return on sales and a 53% higher return on equity than the rest. Experts believe this is because companies with women directors deal more effectively with risk and do a better job at addressing the concerns of customers, employees, shareholders, as well as the local community, and tend to focus more on long-term priorities. Additionally, women drive 70% of purchase decisions in the U.S., which means having female representation on the board can help companies develop more success with their products and services since women directors are likely to be more in tune with women’s needs than men.
And thanks to the first law requiring a gender quota on boards, passed in 2018 in California, legislation in many states is turning up the heat on boards that lack gender diversity, opening up an estimated 6,000 new board seats for women across the U.S. …none of which could be possible without heart, grit, and the will to lead.
So, the question now is, where do we go from here? Here’s Cindy Burrell’s word of advice for women: “Very competent women have been surprised by how difficult it is to get their first corporate board opportunity. That’s normal. It’s important to keep going and to keep trying while being strong as you move forward.” Breen Sullivan shared, “We’re never going to be perfect, but we need to believe that we’re good enough. There are 10 million board rooms in this country filled with imperfect men. It’s time for some imperfect women to join them at the table!”
Jasmine Ball is a wife, mom, and founder of BTM Writing Services. Throughout her career, she’s been helping companies all over the world get confidence over their content and grow their businesses. With God at the center, Jasmine hopes to continually use her gift to connect people to resources that will help them live more informed, inspired, and overall better lives.