This Initiative Helps Companies To Find Female Directors And Board Members

Wednesday, September 28 2016, 07:30:55

Himanshu Roy

JWB Blogger

This Initiative Helps Companies To Find Female Directors And Board Members

JWB Post

July 22, 2016

Ever wondered why there aren’t many women found in boardrooms? You will be surprised to know that most often companies don’t hire women directors, not because of patriarchy or gender discrimination but simply because of the fact that they don’t know where to find them.

Yup, lack of information about top women professionals often seals their fate in the hiring race. According to data released by Boardlist, the start-up that aims to hire more female directors, women hold just 7 percent of the board seats on private tech companies.

When it comes to start-ups which are valued at $ 1 billion or more, there are only 10 per cent women directors. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Joyus and the person behind the idea of Boardlist believes that one of the primary reasons for this disparity is the fact that there is very little information available about top female executives.

That is where Boardlist chips in with a solution to this problem. Boardlist has prepared a database which has the information of around 1200 women who are working as top executives or directors of companies. With the help of this list, potential employers can contact these women and recruit them in upper echelons of their companies.

So far, 120 searches have been performed in Boardlist. All that the companies need to do is to register themselves in the website of Boardlist and provide data about the revenue of their companies. In the last year itself, 34 women have managed to get recruited in board positions, which is a huge success rate.

But wait, as there are more surprises. Now Boardlist has announced that for every board seat it fills, the company will be funding a scholarship for an underrepresented community. This is surely a huge step forward as far as restoring the balance in gender equality, and we hope that many women use Boardroom to grab top positions in MNCs and tech giants.