Alliant Energy recognized for achieving target female board representation
A report in HuffPost in early 2015 claimed that 37 of
the companies on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 stock index, including Tesla Motors,
Priceline and Comcast, have just one woman on the board. Eight other companies
have no women at all, their analysis said, and not a single company with at
least 50 percent women on their board.
These numbers have been a cause for concern in the past year with Fortune
analysis
which found that most of the largest, most celebrated and powerful startups had
no women on their boards. That list included Uber, Snapchat, Airbnb among other
startups approaching household-name status.
Interestingly, Harvard Business Review suggest that at least three women
must be a part of a board without their contributions being seen as gender
biased. Only 76 companies had achieved that number in 2005.
However discouraging these reports may seem, at April Now we are
happy to share stories of companies such as Alliant
Energy, which has a representation of 50 percent women
on its board. Alliant Energy and Alliant Energy Chairman, President and CEO
Patricia Kampling were recognized by the Women's Forum of New York at the third
biennial Breakfast of Corporate Champions for their achievement.
And with Latest
Catalyst Companies Bottom Line Report stating that companies with the highest representation
of women board directors attain significantly higher financial performance, we
look forward to more female representation boards across nations.
