We Say Yes to More Women Board Members

We like the saying, “be the change you want to see in the world”. At Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors (WEFA), we try to live by those words, in both our personal and professional lives, when it comes to representing women in the financial industry.

According to an InvestmentNewsarticle, “only 17% of Fortune 500 board seats are held by women”. Why is this relevant? One body of research suggests, “where women have greater representation on boards, companies simply perform better.”

One astonishing 2012 report from Credit Suisse AG found “companies with women directors outperformed those without women directors in return on equity, average growth and price/book value multiples.”

According to a 2014 Thomson Reuters report, on average companies with no women on their boards underperformed relative to gender-diverse boards and had slightly higher tracking errors.

Mutual fund manager, BlackRock Inc. has reportedly revised their voting guidelines so their board members can become more sufficiently diverse. This is hopefully just the start for mutual fund managers to recognize the need for change in the board room.

You can read more about the national campaign to increase the percentage of women on U.S. company boards to 20% or greater by the year 2020 at www.2020eob.com. 

At WEFA, we believe women can bring a different perspective to the table. We commend companies that revise their voting standards to include more women in their board seats. This is a win-win for women’s rights as well as company growth!

Prepared by Annie Albrecht, Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors