Law enforces corporate diversity

Calif.-based companies must have women as board members

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday signed a bill into law that makes California the first state to require corporate boards of directors to include women, saying that despite potentially “fatal” legal problems in the measure, it is time to force action.

“Given all the special privileges that corporations have enjoyed for so long, it’s high time corporate boards include the people who constitute more than half the ‘persons’ in America,” Brown wrote in a signing message.

The new law requires publicly traded corporations headquartered in California to include at least one woman on their boards of directors by the end of 2019 as part of an effort to close the gender gap in business.

By the end of July 2021, a minimum of two women must sit on boards with five members, and there must be at least three women on boards with six or more members. Companies that fail to comply face fines of $100,000 for a first violation and $300,000 for a second or subsequent violation.

Business groups have questioned the legality of a state imposing such requirements on corporations, many of which are incorporated in other states. Brown was not persuaded by the opposition.

He copied his signing letter to the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee, which has advanced Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court to the full Senate despite testimony by a woman who said he groped her when they were in high school.

“There have been numerous objections to this bill and serious legal concerns have been raised,” Brown said. “I don’t minimize the potential flaws that indeed may prove fatal to its ultimate implementation. Nevertheless, recent events in Washington, D.C. — and beyond — make it crystal clear that many are not getting the message.”

Tivo’s seven-member board is all male, as is the five-member board of Stamps.com, which responded to a Los Angeles Times question on the new mandate with a statement saying it “is reviewing the law but otherwise has no comment at this time.”