Bloomberg Law took a look at the different approaches to Board diversity. Per their analysis, quote, Diversity on corporate boards of directors is more likely to be advanced with disclosure rules than specific quotas after a pair of courtroom defeats for California laws that included gender and racial mandates. Disclosure-only laws may impose penalties for failure to report, but because they don’t create classifications of people, they have a better chance of surviving equal protection challenges.
Why do we care?
The lower bar seems to be working – just openness of the data results in more diversity.
Disclosures look like the winning path – and here’s the critical question. Would you be proud of it if you were required to report your leadership diversity data? The Business of Tech will have our quarterly update coming very soon.