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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 13, 2014 04:18 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Vanessa Lowery Brown |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Co-Sponsorship of Resolution urging equitable and diverse gender representation on corporate boards |
| In the near future I will be introducing a resolution urging Pennsylvania corporations to make gender equity a priority and appoint more women to their boards of directors. Recent studies, many of them summarized in a Wall Street Journal series on "Women in the Economy", make two observations: (1) Corporations with more women board members outperform corporations with fewer women board members; and (2) despite this evidence, women continue to be highly under represented on corporate boards. These studies recommend that corporations make recruitment of women a priority and adopt other reasonable steps to change corporate culture and promote gender-neutral policies. The purpose of this resolution is to encourage Pennsylvania corporations to make gender diversity on their boards a priority. Specifically, this measure urges every publicly held corporation in Pennsylvania over the span of a three-year period (from January 2015 to December 2017), with nine (9) or more director seats, to have board compositions with at least three (3) women, every publicly held corporation in Pennsylvania with five (5) to eight (8) director seats to have a minimum of two (2), and every publicly held corporation in Pennsylvania with fewer than five (5) director seats to have a minimum of one (1) woman on its board. More women are needed in top leadership positions. In an effort to establish gender equity in the workplace, including fair representation, pay parity, safer workplaces, and greater work-life balance, changes need to occur at the top of the corporate structure. Women's high-level involvement in corporations clearly provides an invaluable benefit to corporations. Additionally, this resolution, through the aforementioned studies, highlights the important role that women have assumed within the corporate world. In summary, when viewing the corporate world from an economic, business and fairness perspective, diversity truly matters. Therefore, I wish to take this opportunity to urge my colleagues to please join me in co-sponsoring this resolution. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this legislation, or would like additional information regarding the studies, please contact Fran Harris at fharris@pahouse.net or 717.772.6955. |
Introduced as HR861