
Why Investors React Negatively to Companies That Put Women on Their Boards - jtra92
https://hbr.org/2019/11/why-investors-react-negatively-to-companies-that-put-women-on-their-boards
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ars
Summary:

It's because companies that appoint Women to their boards make a fuss about
how they are now "diverse".

Investors take that as a signal the company cares more about diversity then
about actually making money. (i.e. that they care more about having a woman on
the board then about finding the best board member.)

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dTal
The thing is, that's not neccesarily an irrational or sexist conclusion - it
depends only on high-order beliefs about beliefs about what society thinks of
women, not direct beliefs about women themselves.

It's an interesting perverse consequence of "social justice culture". Consider
the reversal: in a world that was irrationally discriminatory against women,
that did _not_ have a "social justice" culture, hiring women would be a signal
(to unbiased, pragmatic people) that you cared more about getting things done
than about what society thinks. The million-dollar question is - in a world
with _neither_ "social justice" _nor_ irrational sexism, what is the expected
sex ratio of a board of directors?

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orionblastar
It only matters to me if a woman is not competent or qualified for the job.
Otherwise if competent and qualified go ahead.

I've seen many for the sake of diversity to promote an administrative
assistant to board member and be a puppet of the CEO.

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generalpass
This article seems to suggest that shareholders are primarily concerned with
board members who can help them make more money.

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lightgreen
> announcing the appointment of Jack Smith or Marilyn Clark

If they wanted fair comparison they’d choose both name equally strong and with
the same surname, eg Jane Smith for woman or Oliver Clark for man. Or better
choose many different names to make sure name itself is not a factor.
Especially if one of the name looks like not a real name but as a placeholder.

This and couple other signs show this is not a proper study and should be
ignored.

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ramblerman
Did you read the article? There was no perceived difference in competence
between Marilyn and Jack.

So it doesn't really seem to be about the name.

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lightgreen
I did read the article:

> There was, however, a difference in the perceived goals of the company.

