The Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA) has reported that there are still not enough Latin women on California’s company boards, despite recent legislation changes to improve diversity on boards. Latinas make up only 3.3% of women appointed to boards since the California bill ‘SB 826’ was enacted on 1st October 2018.
The SB 826 bill mandates that domestic and foreign public companies headquartered in California must have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019, and a minimum of 3 women on boards by 2022. Legislation even allows boards to increase the number of directors on its board to help them comply with new rules.
However, of the 511 seats filled by women on California boards since the bill became law, only 17 board seats are held by US Latinas, according to LCDA’S analysis. In fact, Latinas represent the lowest number of any minority group, in a state where the Latin population is more than 39%, and rising. White women make up the largest number of board appointments at 77.9%, followed by Asian women at 11.5% and African American women at 5.3%. The Asian and African American population in California is 15.3% and 6.5% respectively.
TRACKING PROGRESS
LCDA’s Latino Board Tracker, which tracks US Latinos on Fortune 1000 company boards, reveals that when the net is cast wider, the picture doesn’t improve. In fact, the statistics get worse with Latinas holding a mere 1.1% of board seats on F1000 California-headquartered corporations, and far lower than any other ethnic group.
“Collecting resumes, without a commitment to diversity, will not change the colour of California boardrooms. It’s past time that Latinas had a seat at the table,” stated California LCDA Member and Former Secretary of the US Small Business Administration, Maria Contreras-Sweet. “There is an ample supply of qualified and experienced Latina directors and C-level Latinas from an array of industry sectors. Companies must be committed to diversifying their boardrooms.”
ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE
LCDA’s findings demonstrate what most diversity advocates already suspect; that even in California – a state with a large Latin population – companies are largely selecting White women to achieve diversity on boards. This was also demonstrated in recent research published by Catalyst, which found that overall women of colour hold only 4.6% Fortune 500 board seats.
“California lawmakers and corporate America must understand that gender diversity is not enough. An all White male and female board of directors is not diverse. Board composition that lacks Latinos, is not reflective of California diversity,” stated Linda Griego, Former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles and LCDA Member. “California Latinos are an economic powerhouse driving growth in every sector of our state’s economy and we should be represented on every public company board in California.”
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