California is the first state to require publicly traded companies to have at least one woman on their board of directors, reports NPR. The law requires public companies whose principal executive offices are located in California to comply by the end of 2019. It was signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday.
The minimum under the new law is two female directors if the company has five directors on its board, or three women if it has seven directors by the close of 2021. The bill was sponsored by state Sens. Hannah-Beth Jackson and Toni Atkins.
“We are not going to ask any more,” Jackson said in August in a floor speech on the bill, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We are tired of being nice. We’re tired of being polite. We are going to require this because it’s going to benefit the economy. It’s going to benefit each of these companies.”
A quarter of the 445 publicly traded companies in California do not have a single woman on their boards, KQED reports.
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