Women on Corporate Boards of Directors: International Research and Practice, Edited by Susan Vinnicombe, Val Singh, Ronald J. Burke, Diana Bilimoria, and Moren Huse, (Edward Elgar Publishing Limited)
This compilation of research and analysis about the role and prospects for women on boards assembles data from developed and emerging economies and also includes commentary and policy discussion. The challenge to all directors, not just women, is well stated in an article called “Championing the discussion of tough issues: how women corporate directors contribute to board deliberations,”by Nancy McInerney-Lacombe, Diana Bilimoria, and Paul F. Salipante: “in practice, raising and championing difficult issues is in most cases very difficult in the paradoxically power-laden yet collegial environment of a corporate board.” They go on to say that “By introducing gender as a moderating variable between director characteristics and the actual championing of tough issues, we speculate 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.” This is quite a speculative leap; even the authors acknowledge that this will happen only “when certain conditions of trust and cohesion exist among board members.”
Nell Minow — Editor
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