Women on Corporate Boards of Directors: International Research and Practice – Edited by Susan Vinnicombe, Val Singh, Ronald J. Burke, Diana Bilimoria, and Morten Huse

• Published date: 01 September 2009
• Author: Nell Minow
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2009.00765.x
• Date: 01 September 2009

Book review

Susan Vinnicombe, Val Singh, Ronald J. Burke, Diana Bilimoria, and Morten Huse (Eds.)

Women on Corporate Boards of Directors: International Research and Practice, Edward Elgar

Publishing Limited, 2009, ISBN 9781847204806

This compilation of 18 chapters on the research and

analysis of the role and prospects for women on boards

assembles data from developed and emerging economies

and also includes commentary and policy discussion. The

data from EU countries is especially useful, as some of them

have made an effort to promote women on boards, some

even imposing quotas. This “coercive” approach is com-

pared to the “liberal” (“right thing to do”) and “collabora-

tive” (a cooperative approach across several stakeholders)

options. There is a useful new term, the “glass cliff,” to

describe what happens to women who break through the

glass ceiling and find their new positions even more precari-

ous than those of the men at the top.

The real challenge is well stated in the chapter entitled

“Championing the discussion of tough issues: how women

corporate directors contribute to board deliberations,” by

Nancy McInerney-Lacombe, Diana Bilimoria, and Paul F.

Salipante. They state, “in practice, raising and championing

difficult issues is in most cases very difficult in the paradoxi-

cally power-laden yet collegial environment of a corporate

board” (p. 125). They go on to say that “by introducing

gender as a moderating variable between director character-

istics and the actual championing of tough issues, we specu-

late that women directors, more than their male

counterparts, are likely to champion tough issues in the

boardroom–women directors’ unique backgrounds, skills,

and attitudes may result in their willingness to raise and

keep alive issues that may be uncomfortable or tension-

inducing for board members” (Id.). This is quite a specula-

tive leap; even the authors acknowledge that this will

happen only “when certain conditions of trust and cohesion

exist among board members” (p.126). It is just this conun-

drum, the problem of encouraging candid questions

without disrupting a collegial atmosphere, thatis the biggest

challenge for board members of both genders.

The underlying problem is not the chromosomes of the

directors, it is who selects them. As long as management

controls the nomination process, directors of both genders

will never be fully independent.The closed-loop mechanism

for director selection and the power the CEO has over the

agenda and information provided to the board affect both

genders equally. There is some optimism in a chapter from

Heather Frost-Cummings on “best practice companies”

(those with 25 per cent or more female directors over a 10

year period and with the board fully integrated into the

company’s diversity and inclusion efforts of the business).

Interviews document the directors’ views on the benefits of

having a “critical mass” of non-white-male board members.

More objective and quantitative analysis would strengthen

this chapter, but the very fact that there were enough com-

panies that met the “best practice” standard to be studied

demonstrates some progress.corg_765661

This book would be of interest to scholars, corporate

search firms, board nominating committees, and others who

follow corporate governance, global economy, and gender

issues.

Nell Minow

LENS, Editor and Founder

CGIR, Editorial Advisory Board Member

661

Corporate Governance: An International Review, 2009, 17(5): 661

© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8683.2009.00765.x