By Lisa Hochgraf
I happened to be a guest at a Rotary meeting in the late 1980s when its members were responding to a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the clubs would have to start admitting female members.
Founded as a service group for business men, Rotary International had pushed back against the movement to admit women, which was started by a California club. But the Supreme Court upheld a California court's ruling that the clubs were business establishments subject to regulation under California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on race, gender, religion or ethnic origin.
The club members I heard spoke eloquently in favor of being pushed in this new direction, seeing adding a new class of members as a real opportunity to broaden the membership in their club--and, eventually, on their board.
I was on planes from Germany to Spain earlier this month when I read an article in the Europe edition of The Wall Street Journal that reminded me of that Rotary meeting long ago. According to the article, "Italy's 'Pink Quotas' Aim to Open Boards," a new law requires Italian listed and state-owned companes to ensure that a third of their board members are women by 2015.
Currently, only around 6 percent of the total number of corporate board members in Italy are women, one of the lowest levels in Europe, according to European Union figures. In contrast, 16 percent of all board members in the United States are women; 42 percent in Norway, and 14 percent in the European Union overall.
"We needed a shock to the system," the article quotes Alessia Mosca, a member of the Italian parliament who co-authored the new law, as saying. "The hope is that this will set off cultural change."
According to the article, several Italian companies have admitted women to their boards in response to the article, including one that has been vocal--like the Rotary Club that I visited way back when--that it expects this to be a good thing. Since being pushed to admit female members, women now comprise 15 percent of Rotary International's membership overall, and 22 percent of its membership in North America.
I'm aware that women have been included on credit union boards for quite some time and I have had the pleasure of working on articles for CUES' publications with some highly capable female board chairs. But Italy's general idea to push boards to consider people in a new group when they cast their nets for new directors is something that credit unions could benefit from applying, even without any legal requirement in place. Just think--if not women, who else might it be good for your board to consider adding when it next goes through a board renewal process?
Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES editor.
Check out CUES' new Board Renewal Report.
