Title: 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.
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector

Summary:
This resolution supports the inclusion of women at all levels of corporate management.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 971 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 971

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

                             March 8, 2022

    Mr. Beyer (for himself and Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                         on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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 Catalyst, a non-profit and non-partisan organization, found in their 
        2020 report entitled ``Women on Corporate Boards'' that women are 56 
        percent of the labor force, yet only account for 30 percent of board 
        directors of S&P 500 companies, and another Catalyst report entitled 
        ``Women CEOs of the S&P 500'' found that women accounted for only 6 
        percent of all CEOs in 2020;
Whereas a McKinsey report entitled ``Women in the Workplace'' published in 2021, 
        found that women of color continue to have even lower representation at 
        every level of corporate employment and leadership;
Whereas the Sadie Collective's paper titled ``Why are Black Women Missing from 
        Corporate Leadership?'' published in November 2020 showed that the 
        number of Black women completing degrees in economics, finance, 
        accounting, and math fields is declining, which are often fields 
        associated with corporate leadership;
Whereas such study found that measures to remove barriers to the pipeline of 
        corporate leadership for Black women in male-dominated fields include 
        access to information, earlier education, and exposure to female 
        mentors;
Whereas The American Economic Association's study entitled ``AEA Profession 
        Climate Survey: Final Report'' published in September 2019 found that 
        women, especially Black women, had to take the most measures to avoid 
        possible harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment, hindering 
        efforts to climb the corporate ladder;
Whereas an Egon Zehnder study entitled ``Global Board Diversity Tracker: Who's 
        Really on Board?'' published in December 2020, showed that companies 
        with more diverse executive teams and boards of directors perform better 
        financially;
Whereas such study showed that women directors contribute to important 
        corporate-level outcomes because they play roles as leaders and mentors, 
        as well as indirect roles as symbols of opportunity for other women, and 
        inspire those women to achieve and stay with their corporations;
Whereas such study found that more recognition of the valuable contribution of 
        women directors to corporation value is needed;
Whereas such study showed that corporations need a critical mass of at least 3 
        women serving on boards of directors with average membership of 11 
        individuals to access the benefits of diversity for overall 
        organizational performance and prevent the negative impacts of tokenism 
        on leadership teams;
Whereas a Harvard Business study entitled ``An Institutional Approach to Gender 
        Diversity and Firm Performance'' published in 2019 found that increased 
        gender diversity results in more productive companies in terms of market 
        value and revenue;
Whereas Credit Suisse's global research study entitled ``CS Gender 3000'' 
        published in October 2019 reviewed 3,000 corporations worldwide to find 
        that women serving on corporate boards improved corporation performance 
        with respect to key metrics, including stock performance, and that 
        companies with a higher proportion of women senior managers demonstrated 
        returns on investment that were both higher and more stable overall;
Whereas such study 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 was also higher; and
Whereas a Stanford University study entitled ``Do Investors Value Gender 
        Diversity in Firms?'' released in 2019 found that investors react 
        positively to substantive increases in gender diversity with a 
        significant increase in stock prices following corporate announcements 
        regarding increased diversity, demonstrating the economic consequences 
        of increased diversity: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the citizens of the United States have a significant 
        stake in promoting robust, sustainable economic growth;
            (2) such growth will be strengthened and accelerated by the 
        ever-fuller inclusion of women in the United States workforce, 
        at all levels of corporate management; and
            (3) corporations in the United States should undertake a 
        commitment to ever-fuller utilization of the talents, skills, 
        and work ethic of women on boards of directors and in other 
        senior management positions.
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