

Companies With More Women Board Directors Experience Higher Financial Performance - byosko
http://www.catalyst.org/pressroom/press_bottom_line_2.shtml
I wonder how many startups have female board members?<p>"Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors, according to Catalyst's most recent report."
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andrew_null
Causation != Correlation

Maybe companies with higher financial performance tend to add more women board
directors later on, as they grow in employees and revenue.

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eru
Or perhaps these two things are caused by a third.

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mattmccor
This is who the study was done by:

"Catalyst is the leading nonprofit corporate membership research and advisory
organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build
inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women and business"

Does it seem like an independent study?

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mynameishere
The numbers don't pass the smell test. Best bet: All-male boards represent
brand-new companies. Only mature, profitable companies start to worry about
installing "tokens".

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imsteve
counter-theory:

Having higher performance (or brighter outlook) _allows_ companies to take on
weaker performing women.

\--yes that guess is politically incorrect

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liz
If the woman were weaker, then performance would not have improved _after_
taking them on as board directors, as this report shows conclusively.

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imsteve
None of us have the stats to prove anything conclusively.

And this is the problem. If the article is going to make such big claims with
such small evidence, then it seems worth evaluating some more obvious
solutions first.

