Lack of Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards Focus of May 21st Symposium and New Book

A symposium examining the lack of gender diversity on corporate boards and the heated debate it has ignited around the world will take place at Yale Law School on May 21, 2015.  The event will coincide with the launch of the new book Challenging Boardroom Homogeneity (Cambridge University Press), authored by Aaron Dhir, Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School.

Leading scholars from the fields of law, management, economics, political science, and sociology will gather to examine the contours of the debate, focusing on three topics:  rationales for diversity in corporate leadership, the efficacy of quota regimes, and the future of diversity in the corporate sphere. 

Yale Law School Dean Robert C. Post ’77 and Professor Dhir will deliver introductory remarks. Panel discussions will include Professor Reva Siegel, Professor Judith Resnik, and several other academics from institutions around the country.  A full schedule for the symposium is available here.

Professor Dhir’s new book is a major empirical study of the two main regulatory models designed to address boardroom diversity — quotas and disclosure.  Little is known about the day-to-day operation of corporate quotas. To fill this void in our knowledge, Professor Dhir conducted in-depth interviews with Norwegian corporate directors, male and female, about their experiences under Norway’s controversial law – the very first quota on the books. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires corporations to report on whether they consider “diversity” in identifying directors and, if so, how. The agency, however, did not define “diversity” in its rule, leaving it to firms to give the term meaning. What does “diversity” mean to corporate America?  Professor Dhir analyzed four years of S&P 100 disclosures to shed light on this question. 

In both cases, Professor Dhir’s research findings are striking and offer new insights into the role law can play in reshaping the gendered dynamics of corporate governance cultures.

“Aaron Dhir’s ambitious book analyzes the role corporations play in shaping expectations of equal treatment and how, from quotas in Norway to disclosure obligations in the United States, law can and has intervened,” said Professor Resnik.  “The bottom line is that this volume should be read by everyone interested in understanding the wave of policies around the world addressing equal opportunities in the workplace.”

“This is a crucial book on a crucial subject,” said Deborah L. Rhode, Professor of Law at Stanford University.  “Dhir brings new insights to bear on critical questions involving diversity on boards in the United States and Europe.  His cutting edge research reminds us why we care about issues of inclusion and revises our understandings about how to achieve it.”

Professor Dhir was the 2013–14 Canadian Bicentennial Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School, as well as a Global Justice Senior Fellow at the Yale MacMillan Center.  He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School and as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, the University of Oxford, the University of California (Berkeley), and University College London.  Professor Dhir’s scholarly interests center on corporate law, governance, theory, and accountability.  His research findings have been covered in the New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, the Financial Post, the Toronto Star, and ThinkProgress.

The symposium is open to the Yale community and invited guests.  Space is limited.  Those interested in attending should RSVP to darcy.smith@yale.edu.