IV 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 445 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that corporations should 
commit to utilizing the benefits of gender diversity in boards of directors 
and other senior management positions. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 
Mr. BEYER (for himself, Mr. EMMER of Minnesota, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mrs. 
DAVIS of California, and Miss RICE of New York) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
corporations should commit to utilizing the benefits of 
gender diversity in boards of directors and other senior 
management positions. 
Whereas a McKinsey and Company study entitled ‘‘Women 
Matter’’, published in October of 2007, showed that cor-
porations in which women are most greatly represented 
on boards of directors, or in other senior management po-
sitions, are also the corporations that perform the best; 
Whereas such study showed that corporations that have 3 or 
more women serving in senior management positions 
score more highly, on average, on the organizational per-
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formance profile than corporations with no women serv-
ing in senior management positions; 
Whereas such study showed that performance increases sig-
nificantly once a certain critical number of women serv-
ing in senior management positions is attained—specifi-
cally, when there are at least 3 women on management 
committees with an average membership of 10 individ-
uals; 
Whereas an Oklahoma State University study entitled ‘‘Cor-
porate Governance, Board Diversity, and Firm Perform-
ance’’, published in March of 2002, found that gender di-
versity on boards of directors is associated with improved 
financial value; 
Whereas Catalyst, a non-profit and non-partisan organiza-
tion, found in the 2014 Catalyst Census that women rep-
resent 46.8 percent of the labor force yet only account for 
19.2 percent of corporate board seats for S&P 500 com-
panies, and a Catalyst report entitled ‘‘Corporate Per-
formance and Women’s Representation on Boards’’, pub-
lished in 2007, found that gender diversity on corporate 
boards contributes to more effective corporate governance 
and to positive governance outcomes through a variety of 
board processes, as well as through individual inter-
actions; 
Whereas such report found that women directors contribute 
to important corporate-level outcomes because they play 
direct roles as leaders and mentors, as well as indirect 
roles as symbols of opportunity for other women, and in-
spire those women to achieve and stay with their corpora-
tions; 
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Whereas such report found that more recognition of the valu-
able contribution of women directors to corporation value 
is needed; 
Whereas ending in 2012 Credit Suisse conducted a 6-year 
global research study entitled ‘‘Gender Diversity and Cor-
porate Performance’’, published in 2012, of more than 
2,000 corporations worldwide that showed that women 
serving on corporation boards improved corporation per-
formance with respect to key metrics, including stock 
performance, as demonstrated by the fact that corpora-
tions with a market capitalization of more than 
$10,000,000,000 on whose boards women served out-
performed by 26 percent stock performance of com-
parable corporations with boards on which no women 
served; 
Whereas such report found a greater correlation between cor-
porations’ stock performance and the presence of women 
directors since the financial crisis in 2008, in addition to 
finding that corporations with women serving as directors 
significantly outperformed other corporations when the fi-
nancial crisis occurred; 
Whereas such report found that corporations with women 
serving as directors tend to be somewhat risk-averse and 
carry less debt, on average, compared to corporations 
with no women directors, and that net income growth for 
such corporations averaged 14 percent over a 6-year pe-
riod, compared with 10 percent for those corporations 
with no women directors; and 
Whereas the United States 30% Club formed by a group of 
business leaders and now including 49 United States 
chairpeople and chief executive officers is committed to 
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