California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill Sunday requiring publicly traded companies to have women on their boards of directors into law, making California the first state in the country to do so.
The bill requires publicly held corporations with executive offices in California to have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019, doubling that requirement by July 2021 for boards with five directors, and at least three women for boards with six or more directors. Companies that fail to comply will face a fine of $100,000 for a first violation and $300,000 for any subsequent violations.
Brown, a Democrat, announced the law in a statement that also noted the “numerous objections” and “serious legal concerns” that the were raised for the bill. He argued, however, that “given all the special privileges that corporations have enjoyed for so long, it’s high time corporate boards include the people who constitute more than half the ‘persons’ in America.”
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2017 Annual Corporate Directors Survey, a majority of companies in the S&P 500 already have at least one woman on their boards, but only 25 percent have more than two.
Brown copied his signing letter to the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee, which advanced President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Friday, adding that he isn’t minimizing “the potential flaws that indeed may prove fatal to its ultimate implementation. Nevertheless, recent events in Washington, D.C. — and beyond — make it crystal clear that many are not getting the message.”
Kavanaugh now faces a short FBI supplementary investigation into the sexual assault allegations he denies, before the full Senate is poised to vote on his confirmaiton.
