An Act To Bring Gender Parity to Corporate Boards
Maine Legislature, Session 130, LD 1200
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: RECKITT
Amends: 13-C MRSA §803

Legislative Document
No. 1200
H.P. 878
House of Representatives, March 22, 2021
An Act To Bring Gender Parity to Corporate Boards
Received by the Clerk of the House on March 18, 2021.  Referred to the Committee on 
Judiciary pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed pursuant to Joint Rule 401.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative RECKITT of South Portland.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  13-C MRSA §803, sub-§4 is enacted to read:
4.  Corporate board gender parity.  A publicly held corporation subject to this Act 
shall comply with the board of directors gender parity requirements of this subsection.
A.  No later than the end of the last day of business of the 2022 calendar year, a publicly 
held corporation subject to this Act shall have a minimum of one female director on its 
board of directors.  A corporation may increase the number of directors on its board to 
comply with this subsection. 
B.  No later than the end of the last day of business of the 2024 calendar year, a publicly 
held corporation subject to this Act shall comply with this paragraph.
(1)  If the number of directors on its board of directors is 6 or more, the corporation 
shall have a minimum of 3 female directors.
(2)  If the number of directors on its board of directors is 5, the corporation shall 
have a minimum of 2 female directors.
(3)  If the number of directors on its board of directors is 4 or fewer, the corporation 
shall have a minimum of one female director.
C.  The Secretary of State shall publish the following reports on its publicly accessible 
website.
(1)  No later than July 1, 2022, the Secretary of State shall publish a report 
documenting the number of corporations subject to this Act that have at least one 
female director.
(2)  No later than March 1, 2023 and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State 
shall publish a report containing, at a minimum, the following:
(a)  The number of publicly held corporations subject to this Act; and
(b)  The number of publicly held corporations subject to this Act that were in 
compliance with the requirements of paragraph B at at least one point during 
the preceding calendar year.
D.  The Secretary of State shall adopt rules to implement this subsection.  Rules adopted 
under this paragraph are routine technical rules as defined by Title 5, chapter 375, 
subchapter 2-A.  
E.  The Secretary of State may impose fines for violations of this subsection as follows:
(1)  For failure to file board member information with the Secretary of State 
pursuant to a rule adopted pursuant to this subsection, $100,000;
(2)  For a first violation, $100,000; and
(3)  For a 2nd or subsequent violation, $300,000.  
For the purposes of this paragraph, each director seat required by this subsection to be 
held by a female that is not held by a female during at least a portion of a calendar year 
counts as a violation.
Fines imposed and collected by the Secretary of State under this paragraph must be 
made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for use by the Secretary of State 
to offset the costs of administering this subsection.
F.  For purposes of this subsection, the following terms have the following meanings.
(1)  "Female" means an individual who self-identifies as a woman, without regard 
to the individual's designated sex at birth.
(2)  "Publicly held corporation" means a corporation with outstanding shares listed 
on a major United States stock exchange.
SUMMARY
This bill requires the board of directors of a publicly held corporation subject to the 
Maine Business Corporations Act to include at least one female director.  The number of 
female directors required is based on the number of directors on the board.  The Secretary 
of State is required to publish reports about boards of directors and may impose fines on 
corporations for failing to report information and for failing to have on their boards the 
minimum number of female directors.