No Seat at the Table: How Corporate Governance and Law Keep Women Out of the Boardroom

Corporate America has historically been a man's world. It has been a commonplace assumption that, as increasing numbers of women with the educational and professional skills needed to succeed in business began to climb the corporate ladder, women would inevitably assume their rightful share of high level positions in corporations. As this book demonstrates,this optimistic assumption has turned out to be untrue. Branson documents the continuing absence of women today in important positions in the corporate world, and then analyzes the reasons why this is still happening. He points both to legal rules and corporal cultural practices and policies that make it challenging for women to succeed at the highest level of corporate governance. In addition, he examines the social and cultural criteria that determine who will be seen as effective executives and who will not--criteria that make many women appear to be less qualified managers than they truly are. Branson suggests that changes in corporate culture and policies will be needed if American business is to successfully tap this underutilized talent pool. In a globalized world of increased competition, American business is ill-served by failing to maximize the contribution of this segment of the corporate work force.