Relatively few women have made it into corporate boardrooms. Legislation under consideration in France aims to change that, by mandating that publicly traded companies have equal numbers of men and women on their boards of directors.
The measure follows comments earlier this year from French finance minister Christine Lagarde, who said: "There should be determined action to include more women in power positions. I didn't used to think it would require legislation or preferential treatment to advance women, but I've changed my view because otherwise it's going to take too long."
Although men far outnumber women in corporate boardrooms, some women have made it to the top. In its list of The 100 Most Powerful Women, released in the summer, Forbes ranked CEOs Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP), Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ:YHOO) Carol Bartz, and Kraft Foods' (NYSE:KFT) Irene Rosenfeld among the top 15.
Is such a law necessary, or is it patronizing? Do investors in Sunoco (NYSE:SUN), WellPoint (NYSE:WLP), or Xerox (NYSE:XRX) give any thought to whether women lead their companies? Do they find it good or bad? And why?
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