Glass ceilings and oak-paneled walls: women on corporate boards

Abstract

Gender diversity on corporate boards can be approached from two perspectives: first, women on boards are good for business since that contributes to better decision making and hence better governance and performance; second, as a social equity issue, women constituting about half the human resources pool need to have proportionate opportunities to serve and contribute to corporate governance and performance. It is in this background that the issue of women on corporate boards will be addressed in this paper. The discussion is organized as follows: section I briefly sets out the business case and the social equity considerations; section II deals with women on boards in India and elsewhere; and section III concludes with some suggestions on the way forward.