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According to a recent assessment of diversity on Fortune 100 boards by the Alliance for Board Diversity, women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented on corporate boards. The same study reported that only 16.7% of board seats in the Fortune 100 are held by women; 14.9% are held by racial and ethnic minorities, and a mere 3% of those seats are held by minority women.

While I do not believe that minority representation is a prerequisite to being responsible and responsive to those minority consumers who are shareholders and consumers, it certainly must help. When women are viewed as minorities (which globally, they are not), the picture for the kind of achievement represented by reaching a position on a corporate board becomes increasingly dismal.

Many studies point to the social network and the lack of minority chief executives as the reason behind the lack of minority-held board positions, and I think they are both right. But as Dr. Phil is fond of saying: "Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?"

In this case, corporations want to be both right and happy, and without pressure to not only hire, recruit, and promote minorities to the upper ranks, these boards are not only right and happy, but fat. Social justice doesn't end when we agree as a society that we are equals, it is the very social pressure to form networks of similar or "better" people that corporate governance reflects.

http://sev.prnewswire .com/banking-financial-service s/20050512/NYW01611052005-1.ht ml

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