Gender Quotas on Company Boards

When: Wed, March 23, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

Where: Langdell South (map)

Sponsor: The Harvard Women’s Law Association in cooperation with Prof. Hanson’s Corporations class.

Description: Women on Board? A discussion on gender stereotyping in business and the pros & cons of gender quotas on company boards March 23, 12pm-1.20pm Langdell South.

Speakers: Prof. Amy Cuddy (Harv Business School) and Prof. Darren Rosenblum (Pace Law School)

Question: A mere 15% of board members of companies are women, the European average is 11.7%, in China it is approx. 7% and in Japan it is even lower. What are the reasons for this disparity and what are measures against it? Some countries, notably Norway, have taken the step to mandate gender quotas for boards of companies. Other countries are debating similar laws. Are gender quotas for boards of companies the right tool to address the problem, or do they lead to unintended consequences?

The discussion will address these questions and the underlying sociopsychological issues.

Co-sponsored by the Harvard Association for Law and Business, the HLS Advocates for Human Rights, the HLS Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences, ACLU and the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender.

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Related Situationist Posts:

• “The Gendered Situation of Recommendation Letters,”
• “Examining the Gendered Situation of Harvard Business School,”
• “A Rose by any other Name Might Become a Judge,”
• “You Shouldn’t Stereotype Stereotypes,”
• “The Nerdy, Gendered Situation of Computer Science,”
• “The Situation of Gender-Science Stereotypes,”
• “Women’s Situational Bind,”
• “The Situation of Gender and Science,”
• “The Gendered Situation of Science & Math,”
• “Gender-Imbalanced Situation of Math, Science, and Engineering,”
• “Sex Differences in Math and Science,”
• “Women’s Situation in Economics,” and
• “Your Group is Bad at Math.”