If having women on boards is as beneficial to the company as this article claims, then why is a law necessary?
If there was such a huge benefit, then why wouldn't companies want to take advantage of what they have to offer?
Oh, probably for the same reason that my company hasn't had a single woman employee in the entire time I've worked here: none have applied.
It's not discriminatory, there just aren't very many women in my field (software development). Even going through college, there were women all over the school and in my general classes, but in all my actual degree-related classes, through all four years, there was one woman.
If my company where to have some law placed upon us saying we have to hire a woman next, we'd be forced to hire an underqualified/unqualified applicant just to fulfill the requirement. The company operates on a pretty tight staff; when we need to hire someone, we need to hire now, and don't have months to wait for the female applicants we never get.
I'm pretty sure upper management positions fall in the same boat: no women are hired because no women are applying